New Delhi, Nov. 5 -- No Indian university has featured in the top 50 list of the QS World University Rankings: Asia 2027 for the second consecutive year, with the ranks of some leading institutions slipping further, according to the report released on Wednesday. This comes even as the country's representation rose to 325 institutions from 294 last year, making it the second most represented higher education system in the region, after mainland China, which increased its tally to 448 from 395. Besides, only six Indian institutions - five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru - feature only in the top 100 of the 2027 rankings, down from seven in the previous edition. All six have also slipped for the second consecutive year. The decline comes alongside a marked contrast in research performance: Indian universities are among Asia's strongest in research output and doctoral capacity, QS data shows, but have struggled to translate that strength into greater research impact. Weak performance on academic reputation and internationalisation indicators have further weighed on their rankings. IIT Delhi, the country's highest-ranked institution, fell seven places to 66 from 59 in the previous edition. IISc, Bengaluru, dropped 15 places to 79 from 64, while IIT Bombay slipped 12 places to 83 from 71. IIT Madras fell 15 places to 85 from 70; IIT Kharagpur dropped 13 places to 90 from 77; and IIT Kanpur fell 20 places to 97 from 77. The University of Delhi also moved out of the top 100, falling to 106 from 95. The last time an Indian institution featured in the regional top 50 was in 2025, when IIT- Delhi and Bombay ranked 44 and 48, respectively. The University of Hong Kong retained the top position, followed by Peking University. Tsinghua University rose six places to third, while the National University of Singapore fell to joint sixth and Nanyang Technological University to eighth. According to QS, "rankings are relative", meaning an institution can fall even when its overall score improves if its peers make faster progress. The overall rankings feature 1,722 universities from 26 higher education systems. The rankings assess universities across 11 indicators, including academic and employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, citations per paper, papers per faculty, staff with PhDs, international research network, international faculty and student mobility. Academic reputation carries the highest weight at 30%, followed by employer reputation at 20%. India currently accounts for 19% of all institutions in the rankings, up from 24 institutions in 2016. Yet, 71% of Indian universities with comparable rankings declined this year, while 18% improved and 11% remained stable. The contrast is particularly visible in the rankings' research indicators. India has emerged as Asia's strongest performer in research output relative to the number of academic staff, QS data shows. Five Indian universities feature in Asia's top 10 for Papers per Faculty - more than from any other higher education system - while 27 are in the regional top 50. "India has built remarkable research capacity... The challenge now is to translate this strength more consistently into research impact and international recognition," QS senior vice-president Ben Sowter said....