New Delhi, March 27 Two leading institutions of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have, for the first time, been included in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, a significant achievement that places India's agricultural research universities on the global academic map.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bareilly, has secured a position in the 51-100 band in Veterinary Science, making it the only Indian institution to be among the top 100 globally in that category.
The ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, has made its debut in the 151-200 band in Agriculture and Forestry.
The QS World University Rankings, released on Tuesday by the UK-based analytics firm QS Quacquarelli Symonds, assessed over 21,000 academic programs across more than 1,900 universities worldwide, using parameters including academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper, and international research network.
In the agriculture and forestry category, 10 Indian universities were among the 475 institutions ranked globally.
Along with IARI, the 151-200 band also includes Banaras Hindu University, the University of Delhi, and IIT Kharagpur. The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) appeared in the 201-250 band, while the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, made its first appearance in the 301-350 band.
ICAR Director General M L Jat said the rankings reflect the institutions' "sustained multidimensional contributions" to basic and applied science in agri-food and health systems, and their integrated model combining fundamental research, translational science, and field-level outreach.
The rankings come weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a Chief Secretaries' conference in December 2025, emphasized the need to develop skilled human capital as a central component of the Viksit Bharat agenda. ICAR functions under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.