Government has unveiled a framework for annually ranking engineering and management institutes of the country. Releasing the ranking framework in New Delhi yesterday, Human Resource and Development Minister Smriti Irani said that National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) follows an Indian approach which considers India-centric parameters like diversity and inclusiveness apart from excellence in teaching learning and research. She said, this will meet the need for a framework that would enable parents, students, teachers, educational institutions and other stakeholders to rank institutions on the basis of a set of objective parameters. <br/><br/>Mrs Irani said, NIRF is an effort to make ranking a transparent process, encourage competition between institutions and verify standards on a yearly basis. Our Correspondent reports that this will be a step forward in starting a new era of accountability in higher education in the country.<br/><br/>The framework is developed by a team of experts in education and heads of institutions. The parameters which will be used for ranking are teaching learning and resources, research, consulting and collaborative performance, graduation outcome, outreach and inclusivity and perception. <br/><br/>The Minister expressed that the framework for pharmacy, architecture and humanities will be released within the next one month. The framework for ranking is presently available online for engineering and management institutions. The ranking framework broadly covers all institutes both in government and private sectors and the first ranking list would be released in April next year.