India’s global university presence has shown significant improvement in recent years, with the number of institutions featured in the QS World University Rankings rising from 45 in 2024 to 52 in 2027. Some institutions like IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, and IISc (Indian Institute of Science) have shown remarkable improvement, and a few others have joined the league of global rankings this year.
While these trends paint an encouraging picture of India’s higher education landscape, the devil lies in the details. A closer examination of the underlying indicators reveals a more nuanced reality. According to a report published by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Research and Development Statistics at a Glance 2022-23, the Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP (gross domestic product) remained close to 0.6 in India from 1990 to 2020, which is significantly low as compared to other major economies like China, Japan and the US. A recent report by NITI Aayog, Ease of Doing Research & Development in India, published in May 2026, highlights a range of institutional and administrative obstacles faced by Indian researchers, constraining their ability to carry out quality research. The key dimensions of R&D funding challenges are fund availability, fund flow, and fund utilisation.
This divergence raises an important question: how have Indian universities been successful in improving their global rankings despite persistent institutional constraints? Examining the QS World University Rankings between 2024 and 2027 and recent evidence on India’s research ecosystem, I argue that the country’s ranking gains have been primarily driven by a group of well-resourced institutions that have successfully integrated themselves into global research networks.
Table 1. Changes in QS performance of selected Indian universities, 2024-2027
What is driving these gains?
Table 1 shows significant improvement in the rankings of select Indian institutions from 2024 to 2027, but the largest gains remain concentrated among a very few of them. Notably, six out of 12 institutions have experienced improvements exceeding 40 positions, while overall gains were concentrated among a small group of IITs and central universities.. The rankings are a composite measure of various dimensions, which means the rapid improvement in ranking performance does not indicate the overall improvement in the R&D ecosystem of the country.
Towards this end, Figure 1 presents an additional insight regarding the contributing factors responsible for the improvement in ranking performance. As we can see, the rise in the overall ranking is driven by various factors, but they do not contribute evenly. The improvement in the citation per faculty (CPF) suggests that now Indian universities are more visible and impactful in their research output. Similarly, other parameters like academic reputation, employment reputation, and international research network (IRN) have shown significant growth. The sharp rise in IRN scores is particularly noteworthy.
The IRN component was included in the QS University Rankings in the year 2024, with the aim to measure an institution’s success in creating and sustaining research partnerships with institutions in other locations. It measures the breadth of an institution’s research network by measuring sustained partnerships, defined as those that result in three or more joint papers published in five years. Even when publication growth is modest, IRN scores can increase substantially as institutions develop more diverse and sustained international research partnerships over time.
Figure 1. Average change in QS indicator scores among selected Indian universities, 2024-2027
Why can some universities achieve this while others cannot?
The NITI Aayog’s report highlights that the IIT system is known to receive more than 80% of ANRF’s (Anusandhan National Research Foundation) R&D funding, an agency established through an Act of Parliament in 2023 to provide high-level strategic directions of research, innovation, and entrepreneurship in various fields of research. Moreover, even though the ANRF mandates supporting R&D in State institutions, because of the lack of ANRF’s expert committee’s representation outside the IIT system, there is an unintentional skewed funding decision. This contributes to a concentration of research funding among elite institutions such as the IITs. While rankings signal that universities are trying to compete on a level playing field, the ability to produce internationally visible research depends on multiple factors like access to research funding, global academic networks, research resources, and infrastructure. These resources are not evenly distributed in India.
Consequently, these institutions are better positioned to convert available resources into research output, citations, and international partnerships that are rewarded by global ranking systems.
Figure 2. Gross expenditure on R&D (% of GDP) for various countries
Source: Department of Science and Technology (DST), Research and Development Statistics at a Glance 2022-23
Note: Figures are percentages of GDP
As seen in Figure 2, relative to other countries, the gross expenditure on R&D (% of GDP) in India remains significantly low, even though it has increased in absolute terms over the past few decades. Adding to this, the number of institutions in India has increased, leading to a drop in the application-to-grant ratio to less than 10% across several R&D funding agencies.
The report also notes that researchers seeking R&D funding often have to navigate lengthy and repetitive application procedures, resulting in delays in grant approval and fund disbursement. While these challenges affect the research ecosystem as a whole, their impact is unlikely to be uniform across institutions. Elite institutions with dedicated research offices, stronger administrative systems, and greater institutional capacity are generally better equipped to manage such complexities than many State universities and resource-constrained institutions. As a result, existing differences in research capacity may be further reinforced over time, contributing to the concentration of research excellence within a relatively small group of universities.
What gives leading institutions an advantage?
Despite the broader challenges in India’s research ecosystem, the global rankings of these elite institutions have continued to rise. Understanding this apparent paradox points to three key factors: the concentration of funding, research infrastructure, and international collaboration.
Funding concentration: As noted earlier, research funding is highly concentrated in the IIT system. Most of the Indian institutes that ranked in QS University Rankings 2027 are designated Institute of Eminence, granted by the Government of India. This provides them various benefits like receiving up to Rs. 1,000 crore in government funding and research status, academic autonomy to fix their own curriculum, permission to hire up to 25% of foreign faculty, and freedom to initiate academic collaboration with the top-500 global institutions. These advantages provide elite institutions with a stronger foundation for attracting talented researchers, building international collaborations, and producing high-quality research. Consequently, the same institutions that benefit from greater funding and autonomy are often better positioned to perform well on the indicators that global ranking systems reward.
Research infrastructure concentration: The concentration of research resources is reflected not only in funding but also in research capacity and infrastructure. Kiran et al (2024). find that leading IITs record publication acceptance rates exceeding 90% in indexed journals, indicating their ability to consistently produce research that meets international academic standards. Such performance is supported by stronger laboratories, research ecosystems, faculty quality, and institutional support mechanisms. The concentration of research resources is also evident in recent strategic investments. For instance, under the National Quantum Mission, the Government of India approved four quantum technology hubs worth approximately Rs. 720 crore, located at IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, and IISc Bengaluru. Such investments provide access to cutting-edge research facilities and strengthen the ability of these institutions to attract high-quality researchers, secure international collaborations, and produce globally competitive research. Hence, the same institutions that benefit from superior infrastructure and research capacity are often those recording the strongest gains in citations, international research networks, and global rankings.
International collaboration advantage: Participation in international research networks represents another important advantage enjoyed by India’s leading institutions. The strong improvement in IRN scores among institutions such as IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, and IISc suggests that these universities have become increasingly integrated into global knowledge networks. This is significant because international collaborations often lead to co-authored publications, greater research visibility, and higher citation impact.
The positive correlation (0.61) between CPF and IRN scores further indicates that universities expanding their IRN also tend to experience stronger gains in research impact. Consequently, institutions with stronger global partnerships are better positioned to attract talent, access cutting-edge knowledge, and produce internationally recognised research. These advantages strengthen their performance in global rankings while reinforcing the concentration of research excellence among a small group of institutions.
Conclusion
India’s rise in global university rankings is both real and noteworthy. However, the evidence presented here suggests that this progress has been driven disproportionately by a relatively small group of research-intensive institutions rather than by a broad-based transformation of the higher education system. Improvements in citations per faculty and international research networks indicate genuine advances in research visibility and global engagement, but these gains have been concentrated among institutions with greater access to funding, infrastructure, institutional autonomy, and international partnerships.
The findings suggest that India’s success in ranking performance is best understood as a story of concentrated excellence. While institutions such as the IITs and IISc have successfully leveraged research funding, strategic infrastructure investments, and global collaborations to enhance their international standing, many universities continue to face persistent constraints related to funding access, grant administration, and research capacity. The challenge for policymakers is therefore not simply to create a few globally competitive universities, but to broaden research capacity across the wider higher education system. Without addressing the structural bottlenecks identified by NITI Aayog, India’s rise in global rankings may remain an achievement of a handful of institutions rather than a transformation of the system as a whole.
Ashu Arora is a public policy researcher currently working with a World Bank economist on projects related to migration and healthcare. He works at the intersection of health, migration, international development, and institutions. He holds a Masters in International Economics and Finance from Johns Hopkins SAIS and has previously worked at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Johns Hopkins SAIS.
This article first appeared on Ideas For India and has been republished under an arrangement.
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