As many as nine Indian varsities and institutes figure in the top 10 in south Asia, according to the Asian University Ranking 2016 by Britain's Times Higher Education (THE).
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru leads in south Asian nations followed by IITs (Bombay, Kharagpur, Delhi, Madras, Roorkee, Guwahati), Jadavpur University, IIT - Kanpur and Pakistan's Quaid - i - azam University, the rankings reveal.
Bangladesh's University of Dhaka and Pakistan's National University of Sciences and Technology occupy places in the top 20.
The figures also show "India is the strongest in the region with representatives in the top 100 (eight varsities) and boasts 16 universities overall among the top 200 universities in Asia".
Neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh have just three institutions between them in the bottom half of the table, it said.