This year, not a single Indian institute has made it to even the top 200 of the world’s most prestigious universities, in the 2014 World Reputation Rankings (WRR) by Times Higher Education Magazine. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and IIT Bombay, which figured at 130th and 192nd places in the table last year, have slipped out of the top 200 this year.

   There are 20 countries represented in the world top-100 table, led by Harvard University, MIT and Stanford University in the first three spots. India is a no-show. (See Table below) “Why has this happened?” It is high time the policy makers and academicians meet and analyse the reason and bring out suitable remedial measures. According to a publication by Gupta et al, (S&T Publications Output of India: A Scientometric Analysis of Publications Output, 1996-2011), the total number of universities and colleges in India in 1950 were 30 and 695, respectively. By 2011, they rose....