IIT-D, IIT-B in top 200 universities of world

New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) been ranked amongst the Top 200 Universities of the World this year, the list of which is dominated by educational institutions from the US and UK.

The survey, called the 'THE - QS World University Rankings 2008', ranked IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay at 154 and 174 positions respectively.

Last year, the two institutes were ranked at 254 and 269 respectively.

No other Indian university has been able to make it to the Top 200 Universities' list, which has as many as nine Asian institutes among the top 50, including three based in Hong Kong.

The institutions identified by the 'Times Higher Education (THE) - QS World University Rankings', as the World's top universities in 2008, represent 20 countries with Israel represented for the first time. Whilst North America dominates with 42 universities, Europe and Asia Pacific are well represented with 36 and 22 respectively.

The list has been topped by Harvard University (United States) followed by Yale University (United States) and University of Cambridge (United Kingdom.)

The University of Oxford (United Kingdom) has been ranked 4th.

China has as many as five varsities in the Top 200, with Peking University placed at 50 and Tsinghua University at 56.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Seoul National University are the two new entrants into the list this year.

MANY MANY IITs

New Delhi: Three more Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) would come up in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan in fiscal 2008-09, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram informed parliament on Friday.

While allocating Rs.344 billion for the education sector - an increase by 20 percent over - he remarked that the new IITs will start soon.

While IITs coming up at Patna in Bihar and Medak in A.P is expected to start from the next session in 2008-09, the Rajasthan government is yet to provide a suitable site for its IIT, considered as a premier engineering institution in the country.

There are seven IITs in the country - in Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, and Roorkee. These autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education were established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Indian government.

With the three new ones - in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan - the number will increase to 10. Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh had earlier indicated that more IITs would come up in the coming years.

The government is also likely to develop one engineering institution in the state as IIT in the near future. He also announced upgrading of many other engineering institutions that would be developed at par with the IIT. The Union HRD ministry has already upgraded Regional Engineering Colleges - one in every state - to National Institutes of Technology. IANS