IITs among world's most innovative universities

The Indian Institutes of Technology are ranked at number 71 in the Asia Pacific world rankings.

The annual Reuters ranking of Asia Pacific's Most Innovative Universities for 2018 is out.

The most innovative university in the region, for the third consecutive year, is South Korea's Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), followed by Japan's University of Tokyo and Pohang South Korea's University of Science & Technology (POSTECH) on second and third positions. 

The Asia Pacific ranking, according to the international news agency Reuters, 'aims to identify and rank the educational institutions in the region doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies, and power new markets and industries.'

The rankings are compiled in partnership with Clarivate Analytics, a global data company.

The final rankings are based on empirical data which include patent filings from Derwent Innovation and research paper citations from the Web of Science.

The Indian Institutes of Technology system is ranked number 71 on the list.

'Despite boasting the world’s second-largest population (more than 1.28 billion) and one of its largest economies, only one Indian university appears in the top 75, the Indian Institutes of Technology (#71),' Reuters reported.

'IIT is a network of 23 universities which centralises its patent administration, so it's not always possible to identify which constituent university was responsible for what research.

'As a result, Reuters ranked the entire system as opposed to individual universities. World-class campuses like IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay may have ranked much higher on the list if they weren’t grouped in with smaller and newer institutes like IIT Tirupati and IIT Palakkad,' the Reuters report added.

Take a look at the top 75 Asia's Most Innovative Universities for 2018