India, Sept. 10 -- India's premier centrally run higher education institutions are facing a significant vacuum at the top, with 37 of 155 Institutions of National Importance (INIs), or 23.9%, currently functioning with interim in-charge or acting vice-chancellors (VCs) or directors, or those with additional-charge or on extensions, according to an analysis by HT.

The analysis covered all 48 Central Universities (CUs), 23 IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology), 31 NITs (National Institutes of Technology), 25 IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information technology), 21 IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management) and seven IISERs (Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research) under the Union education ministry.

VCs and directors are the highe...