The role of universities towards innovation and economic development is vital. Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have been praised for their contribution in creating new knowledge, advancing the technology frontier, economic development, and being agents of change in the local and regional communities. The culture of a university influences its success in producing innovation and can influence the culture of a region.

There is a total of 1043 universities in India. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has accredited around 401 universities.

Tamil Nadu (43) has the highest number of universities accredited by NAAC, followed by Uttar Pradesh (36) and Maharashtra (34).

Ranking of Universities: Below are the rankings (1-100) of Indian Universities by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), Ministry of Education. Indian Institute of Science, Karnataka, got the first rank, while Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, got the second rank.

Research outputs: Research outputs which are the world of knowledge, have become an essential parameter in assessing universities' performance. As per the Nature Index (1 December 2020-30 November 2021), most research outputs (Chemistry, Earth &Environmental, Life Sciences, and Physical sciences) are produced by Homi Bhabha National Institute, followed by the Indian Institute of Science.

Note: The Nature Index tracks a small proportion of the total number of research articles published, and they cover the natural sciences only.

Intellectual Property Rights: By granting universities and public research organizations (PROs) the rights to their own intellectual property (IP) - patents, copyrights, trademarks, utility models, and industrial designs - derived from state-financed research, and allowing them to commercialize their results, governments seek to accelerate the transformation of scientific discoveries into industrial applications, and to strengthen collaborative ties between the universities and industries.

Indian Institute of Science has the highest number of patents, followed by Delhi University for the period (1958-2017). NIRF has given 1st  rank to the Indian Institute of Science and 12th rank to the University of Delhi. The most number of patents is granted in the area of chemical (77) followed by Biotechnology (50).

Patents help universities improve their ranking and also help in establishing an innovative ecosystem and incubating knowledge-based start-ups.

University-Industry Linkages: Universities often collaborate with the industries to innovate in a specific domain that gives exposure to the students and faculties. This encourages the entire academic ecosystem to do more research, leading to valuable inventions.

Karnataka and Kerala have a very strong University-Industry linkage. Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Manipur have weak University-Industry linkage.

Source: PHD Research Bureau, compiled from the study on Framework for University-Industry Linkages in Research

· Score more than 7 denotes very strong University-Industry Linkage

· Score between 5 to 7 denotes strong University-Industry Linkage

· Score between 3 to 5 denotes moderate University-Industry Linkage

· Score less than 3 denotes weak University-Industry Linkage

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