KOLKATA: At a time when Bengal has witnessed largescale exodus of students to other states for higher studies, two of its campuses have made it to the Department of Science and Technology's list of top 10 institutes in research and innovation.

IIT Kharagpur has taken the second spot behind IISc Bangalore, and Jadavpur University has come in at No. 8. There are four other IITs on the list, besides Delhi University , Anna University and Banaras Hindu University. Not only did IIT Kharagpur score in the number of research publications, its foray into advance research left other institutions playing catch-up.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is a wing of the Union ministry of science and technology and is the biggest sponsor of research projects in science and tech institutions. This is the first time it has come out with a ranking of beneficiary institutions by skimming their work over 12 years, from 2002-14. The DST initiative follows Narendra Modi's instruc tion to the ministry to bo ost research in top science and technology institutions with added incentives and funding so as not to lose the best brains to the corporate sector. This is especially true of the IITs.
In the past year, DST has provided nearly Rs 174 crore to IITKharagpur. "It is not superb placements, but such national ranking for research that makes us happy as it shows we are on a path towards sustainable gro wth," said IIT-Kgp director Partha Pratim Chakraborty .


The rankings report has been drawn up based on findings by the Elsevier Scopus data, also globally accepted while considering achievements of Indian nstitutions for world rankings. Several faculty members, ike Anil Bhowmick of rubber technology , Amit Patra of electrical engineering and Pallab Dasgupta of computer science and engineering, have been named as the country's top resear cher. Patra, working on power management of integrated circuits, has carried out path-breaking research on developing a design for efficient power supp y circuits. "We are trying to develop tomorrow's solutions to consume less energy ," he said.Dasgupta's work for safety critical systems is considered to be pioneering.
JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said, "Despite the fact hat we are a state university with considerable less funding compared to Centre-backed institutions, we have managed to compete and excel."