Vice President Venkaiah Naidu to announce Atal Rankings ARIIA 2020 today; Details here

Atal Rankings: Atal Rankings of Institutions on Innovation Achievements to be announced today! Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu is all set to announce the Atal Rankings of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2020 on Tuesday, August 18, according to a report by The Indian Express. Keeping in mind the need for social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony would be held virtually, and it would also be attended by Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Union Minister of State for Education Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, and Secretary of Higher Education Amit Khare.

According to the report, the rankings have a special category for women, in order to bring in gender parity and encourage the participation of women in the fields of innovation as well as entrepreneurship. Apart from this, there are five more categories—centrally-funded institutions, private institutions, state-funded universities, state-funded autonomous institutions and private/deemed universities.

The indicators for the rankings this year included awareness activities for promoting idea generation and innovation (which was allocated 20 marks), budget, expenses to support and revenue generated (20 marks), promotion and supporting entrepreneurship development (20 marks), technology transfer and commercialisation (14 marks), intellectual property (IP) generation, innovative learning methods and courses (10 marks), infrastructures and facilities to support innovations and start-ups (10 marks), and innovations in the governance of the institution (6 marks).

The report stated that in 2019, the ranking was announced in top five institutions in the ‘Private and self-finance’ category and top 10 institutions in the ‘Public-funded’ category.

The report further informed that the ranking is an initiative by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (now known as the Ministry of Education), and it is implemented by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Innovation Cell of the Ministry. It is aimed at systematically ranking Indian institutions and universities for higher education, on the basis of indicators related to startup, innovation, and entrepreneurship development amongst the faculty and students.