In the QS World University Rankings 2026, released last week, three Indian institutes were ranked in the top-200 – IIT Delhi at 123rd rank, IIT Bombay at 129th rank, and IIT Madras at 180th rank.
Of these, IIT Madras jumped the highest – 47 positions above its 2025 rank of 227. IIT Delhi, on the other hand, jumped 27 positions (it was ranked 150th in 2025), and IIT Bombay dropped by 11 ranks (it was ranked 118th in 2025).
Prof V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, told FE that the next target is to be among the top-50 institutes globally in at least five disciplines.
“Subject-wise, we are in the top-100 in QS in many disciplines, and in a few years, we can be among the top-50 in at least five disciplines,” Prof Kamakoti said.
While the subject-wise ranking of QS 2026 will be released in some time, in the QS 2025 rankings, IIT Madras was ranked 31st in the world in petroleum engineering; 66th in mechanical, aeronautical & manufacturing engineering; 84th in electrical & electronic engineering; 91st in mathematics; and in the 51-100 band in three subjects – mineral & mining engineering, civil & structural engineering, and data science & artificial intelligence.
Other areas where it ranked high are computer science & information systems (107th in the world); materials sciences (114th); chemistry (137th); physics & astronomy (140th); chemical engineering (101-150); and environmental sciences (151-200).
Although Prof Kamakoti didn’t share any timeline by when can the institute achieve the top-50 target, he said it will be done well before 2030.
In addition, in the Indian government’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings, IIT Madras has been topping the ‘Engineering’ category every year since these rankings started in 2016, and has been ranked the ‘Overall’ best institute in India since 2019.
Prof Kamakoti said this ranking boost has been achieved thanks, in part, to the ‘Strategic Plans’ of IIT Madras that started in 2003.
The first Strategic Plan called Vision 2010 was released in 2003, which laid out steps for turning IIT Madras – which was founded in 1959 and had completed four decades of excellence by then – into a world-class institute.
The second Strategic Plan (2014-20) focused on being a global leader in research and education, incubate globally-recognised centres of excellence, increase exchange faculty and scholar strength, incubate ‘blockbuster’ companies that will create high-value intellectual property, and to make the IIT Madras Research Park – started in 2010 – the best in business.
The third and ongoing Strategic Plan (2021-27) has laid out the path for IIT Madras to be among the best in the world.