India has improved upon its World University Rankings 2019 with a record 49 institutions from the country finding place among the best universities in the world. However, no Indian varsity figures among top 200. Last year 42 Indian varsities were ranked among 1000 best institutions globally.

While Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore remained the top school from the country, India has some fresh names including the newly established Indian Institute of Technology in Indore (IIT Indore) making an impressive debut in the global rankings, as per the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2019 published on Wednesday.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar expressed happiness over India's 33 institutes being placed within 1000 best of the world institutes as compared to last year ranking which had 30 Indian institutes under the same THE rankings. "This year eight new institutes have made their place in the top 1000 which includes IIT Indore, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysore, IISER (Pune) amongst others," Javadekar said.

However, all Indian institutes are outside the top 200 global list that is topped by Oxford University. Globally, Oxford claims first position for a third consecutive year followed by Cambridge and Stanford University.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rises one place to number four but the California Institute of Technology drops two places to number five. Tsinghua University of China is the new number one school in Asia replacing National University of Singapore.

While IISc was kept in the 250-300 ranking cohort, IIT Indore made its debut with a presence in the 351-400 best universities group ahead of established IITs in Delhi, Madras and Mumbai. IIT Bombay with a global ranking in the 401-500 group is the third best from India and has slipped in the latest ranking by 50 places when compared with its previous ranking.

IIT Roorkee, however, improved its ranking by 100 places to be clubbed in the same group as IIT Bombay.

Interestingly, two private institutes-Karnataka-based Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeswara University now renamed as JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research, and Tamil Nadu-based Amrita University have made the most progress in the 2019 rankings among Indian institutes.

Besides, three new IITs and two Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) have found a place among the top 1,000 universities in the world.