New Delhi, Dec 30 (IANS): Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has been ranked fifth in the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) by the Ministry of Education, improving four places from its last year's rank.

Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar announced the results on Wednesday.

As many as 1,438 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) -- including all IITs, NITs, and IISc, among others, participated in the third edition of ARIIA rankings as compared to 674 HEIs during last year.

Sarkar congratulated the top performers in various ARIIA ranking categories, emphasising that the institutions should focus on the quality of innovations and research to achieve the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' in the true sense.

Associate Dean of Innovation and Incubation, IIT Roorkee, Rajat Agrawal, said: "This improvement shows that IIT Roorkee is moving in the right direction for making the Institute an innovation savvy campus. 18 startups were established during the evaluation period. The filing of patents increased by 50 per cent and four technologies were commercialised during the same period."

"The filing of IP by start-ups in the incubation facility of the institute also increased by 100 per cent. These improvements in different aspects of Innovation and Entrepreneurship helped IIT Roorkee improve four positions in this years' ranking," he added.

ARIIA endeavours to systematically rank education institutions and universities primarily on innovation-related indicators. Final ranks are given on the basis of performance of institutions on a series of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) activities, academic programmes related to I&E, available infrastructure, generation of innovative ideas, creation of startups, funding available, IP generation and commercialisation, budgetary expenditure on I&E activities.