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Difficult to believe, but not a single Indian institute or university ranks among the top 150 global centres of learning, not even the coveted IITs and IIMs, according to a study. As per research conducted by Times Higher Education (THE), a London-based magazine, the US dominates the rankings, followed by the UK at a distant second.

So far as India goes, IIT-Bombay bagged the best rank, clinching the 187th spot, placed even behind Taiwan. Truly shocking!

In the study, China leads the Asian pack with six schools in the top 200 (Peking University is at no. 37 overall). Of the total 25 Asian schools in the top 200, there are five from Japan, four from Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan and two from Singapore.

What is even more astounding is the fact that two more rankings - Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and QS World University Rankings – were released recently. Here also, none of the India’s varsities or institutes figured in the top 100.

Meanwhile, the US, clinched 72 slots among the world’s top 200, bagging the top five also. UK saw 29 varsities in the top 200.

The top-ranked school was Harvard, California Institute of Technology or CalTech was at no. 2 and MIT no. 3. Stanford and Princeton were placed fourth and fifth.

Six out of eight Ivy League colleges were in the top 20 (overall), but Brown and Dartmouth, the smaller schools in the group of the prestigious league, stood at 55th and 99th place.

The top ranked UK institutes were the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, tied at no. 6. In the top 200, there were 14 schools from Germany, 10 from the Netherlands and nine from Canada.

Perhaps poor infrastructure could have led to even India’s most sought-after institutes (The IITs & IIMs) not finding a place in the rankings. Moreover, the government is averse to doling out funds to even our coveted institutes and there is an alarming crunch of teaching staff. These factors could have led to India’s abysmal show in the world university rankings.