India Rankings 2025 released by the Union education ministry a fortnight ago was vetted by a private consultancy firm-the first such instance since the inception of the prestigious rankings in 2015.

Global consulting firm EY, currently associated with various government projects, was entrusted with the task.

Multiple sources privy to the matter told this newspaper that the decision to rope in EY for double verification of data, was taken in the backdrop of an in-explicable surge in rankings, by some institutions and the shocking slump registered by a few others.

"It was heartening to note that the firm (EY) endorsed the rankings made by us and did not find even a single error," claimed an official with the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) team.

The rankings were delayed by six weeks this year due to the additional verification process.

"Post-Covid, we were releasing the rankings by July and August. It was done in June since 2015 when we commenced the ranking process. Our original plan was to release by mid-July this year. But due to the third-party verification, we were able to release them only by the first week of September," said an official.

NIRF is a part of the National Board of Accreditation, an autonomous body set up in 1994 to evaluate the qualitative competence of the professional courses offered in India.