LEAGUE OF LEGAL EAGLES

A CONSISTENT EMPHASIS ON EXPANDING ITS RESEARCH OUTPUT IS THE CORNERSTONE OF SUCCESS FOR INDIA’S TOP LAW SCHOOL

- Ajay Sukumaran

India’s top law school has its sights set on the global stage. And, to get there, the emphasis is on research. The efforts the Bengaluru-based National Law School of India University (NLSIU) has made in this direction over the past couple of years are clearly paying off. For instance, in the 2023 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings, its score in the ‘research and professional practice’ parameter saw an impressive jump to 71.85 from the previous year’s 57.01 (out of 100). Scores in all other parameters remained consistent or showed an improvement too.

“The research story has just begun,” says vice-chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy, who expects the research output to further increase this year. “It is very closely linked to the kind of faculty we have been recruiting and the culture we are trying to build internally, which emphasises research output as much as our commitment to teaching.” But research output is as much about impact, he points out. Hence, the institute aims to engage more in the public conversations that matter. “So, that will be a key emphasis for the year looking ahead,” says Krishnaswamy. “We hope that in the years ahead, we will garner enough energy and output to really shape the intellectual space and discourse in India and beyond.”