Munish Sood
mandi
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi has registered significant improvement in the India Today-MDRA Rankings 2026, moving up across key categories and emerging among the country’s leading government engineering institutions showing consistent growth.
In the Technical Universities category, IIT Mandi secured 7th position nationally, improving from 8th rank in 2025. The institute scored 1,616.1 out of 2,000 in the category.
The institute also improved its position in the Engineering Colleges—Overall category, rising to 11th rank from 13th last year. Among government engineering colleges, IIT Mandi secured 10th position, up from 12th in 2025.
In the overall engineering category, the institute scored 1,692.6 out of 2,000, comprising an objective score of 967.4 and a perceptual score of 725.2.
IIT Mandi also featured prominently among emerging and rapidly improving institutions. It was ranked third among Emerging Government Engineering Colleges across the country, behind IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Patna.
The institute secured sixth position among the Most Improved Government Engineering Colleges, a category based on the percentage improvement in rankings over the five-year period from 2022 to 2026.
The rankings assess institutions on a combination of objective and perceptual parameters, including academic and research excellence, quality of admissions and governance, infrastructure and campus experience, personality and leadership development, career progression, placements and institutional reputation.
Commenting on the achievement, IIT Mandi Director Prof. Laxmidhar Behera said the institute’s improving position reflected the collective commitment of its faculty, students, staff, alumni and institutional partners. He attributed the progress to sustained focus on academic excellence, high-impact research, innovation, entrepreneurship and the overall development of students.
He said recognition among the country’s leading emerging and most improved government engineering institutions was particularly encouraging and added that the institute would continue working towards building an institution aligned with global academic standards while making meaningful contributions to society and the nation.
The latest rankings underline IIT Mandi’s steady upward trajectory and its efforts to strengthen its academic and research ecosystem while creating greater opportunities in innovation, entrepreneurship and student development.
