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Regional comparison
Colleges in South India
Side-by-side view of states and UTs in the South zone — institute counts, NIRF coverage, and links to each state’s own page. 12,243 institutes across 7 states · 28 NIRF-ranked in sample.
South zone — key facts
Live data| States / UTs in this zone | 7 |
|---|---|
| Tracked institutes | 12,243 |
| With NIRF Engineering rank (sample) | 28 |
| States with dedicated pagesEach qualifying state still has its own dedicated page | 7 |
| Largest state share | Tamil Nadu · 3413 |
Regional totals from Knwdle’s live institute list, grouped by state. This page compares states; it does not replace individual state landings.
States in South India
Primary comparison table for this region. Open a state page for the place-level view.
| State / UT | Institutes | Share | NIRF-ranked | Best rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamil Nadu | 3413 | 28% | 12 | #1 | State page → |
| Karnataka | 3404 | 28% | 5 | #17 | State page → |
| Andhra Pradesh | 1973 | 16% | 2 | #57 | State page → |
| Telangana | 1719 | 14% | 5 | #7 | State page → |
| Kerala | 1618 | 13% | 3 | #21 | State page → |
| Puducherry | 105 | 1% | 1 | #99 | State page → |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 11 | 0% | 0 | — | State page → |
Overview
Knwdle's South zone groups Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The first six broadly mirror the region's informal Southern Zonal Council membership; we additionally place the Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar Islands here since neither Union Territory has a natural home in any other zone. Institutes tracked here include IIT Madras (Tamil Nadu) and IIT Hyderabad (Telangana), plus long-established NITs — Tiruchirappalli, Surathkal (Karnataka) and Calicut (Kerala) among them.
Every state above still earns its own dedicated /colleges/state page once it clears Knwdle's three-institute threshold. This zone page doesn't replace any of those — it adds a state-by-state comparison table, so counts and NIRF coverage across the South are visible in one place before you open a specific state.
Key figure
Share with a cited NIRF rank
0%
Computed from every institute currently mapped to a South-zone state on this page — not a fixed marketing number.
FAQ
- Which IITs are located in the South zone?
- Two: IIT Madras in Tamil Nadu and IIT Hyderabad in Telangana. The zone also carries several long-running NITs, including NIT Tiruchirappalli, NIT Karnataka (Surathkal) and NIT Calicut.
- Why are Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands grouped here?
- Both are Union Territories without an obvious geographic zone of their own in Knwdle's grouping, so we place them alongside the mainland southern states for comparison purposes — not because they sit inside any official Southern Zonal Council.
- Is this the same as the official Southern Zonal Council?
- It broadly overlaps — the five southern states plus Puducherry — but this is Knwdle's own comparison grouping for browsing, not a statutory classification, and we add two island Union Territories the official council doesn't cover.
- How do JoSAA and state-level exams both feature in this zone?
- IITs and NITs here are reached through JoSAA; several state universities and private institutes admit through their own entrance exam or state counselling instead. Each institute's admission pathway is labelled on its own profile where we've sourced it.
Top NIRF ranks in South India
Best Engineering ranks across this zone (up to 20). Compare states above for geographic mix.
Top institutes in this zone
NIRF-sorted sample (155 of 12,243 tracked). Open a state page for the full list.
| Institute | State | Type | NIRF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IIT Madras (IITM) | Tamil Nadu | IIT | #1 | View → |
| IIT Hyderabad | Telangana | IIT | #7 | View → |
| NIT Trichy | Tamil Nadu | NIT | #9 | View → |
| SRM University Chennai | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #14 | View → |
| VIT Vellore | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #16 | View → |
| NIT Surathkal (NITK) | Karnataka | NIT | #17 | View → |
| Anna University, Chennai | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #20 | View → |
| NIT Calicut | Kerala | NIT | #21 | View → |
| Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #23 | View → |
| NIT Warangal | Telangana | NIT | #28 | View → |
| Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Virudhunagar | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #33 | View → |
| IIIT Hyderabad | Telangana | PRIVATE | #38 | View → |
| SASTRA University Thanjavur | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #40 | View → |
| SIMATS Chennai | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #45 | View → |
| IIT Tirupati | Andhra Pradesh | IIT | #57 | View → |
| MIT Manipal | Karnataka | PRIVATE | #59 | View → |
| IIST Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala | PRIVATE | #61 | View → |
| IIT Palakkad | Kerala | IIT | #64 | View → |
| PSG Tech Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #67 | View → |
| Sathyabama University | Tamil Nadu | PRIVATE | #67 | View → |
| IIIT Bangalore | Karnataka | PRIVATE | #69 | View → |
| University of Hyderabad | Telangana | PRIVATE | #74 | View → |
| Christ University | Karnataka | PRIVATE | #76 | View → |
| IIT Dharwad | Karnataka | IIT | #77 | View → |
How to use this page
- 1Start with the state comparison table — counts, NIRF coverage, and best rank per state.
- 2Open a state page for the place-level view, or a profile for scorecards and sourced content.
- 3Use Rankings for the national table, or Compare for a neutral side-by-side of 2–3 colleges.
Frequently asked questions
Answers use counts from this page's live institute list.
- How many institutes appear for South zone?
- 155 institutes currently match this page’s filter. 28 of them have a numeric NIRF Engineering rank in our database.
- Is “best” based on editorial opinion?
- No. Where we sort or headline by rank, the order follows published NIRF Engineering ranks (nirfindia.org). Unranked institutes are not given a fabricated Knwdle rank.
- What is Graduation Outcomes (GO)?
- GO is an NIRF sub-score (independent of self-reported packages). On this page, 28 institutes have a GO value; the average among those is 64.9.
- How is this different from a state page?
- This is a multi-state comparison for the geographic zone. Every state that clears the institute threshold still has its own /colleges/state page — this layer puts their counts and NIRF coverage side by side.
What we publish — and what we don't
Included when sourced
- NIRF Engineering ranks & sub-scores (nirfindia.org)
- JoSAA closing ranks already in our database
- Programmes from AICTE EOA / institute official catalogues
- Fees & admissions copy only from the institute's own site
- Campus images from Wikimedia Commons or official media
Deliberately excluded
- Star reviews and self-reported placement packages
- Fees estimated or copied from aggregator directories
- Facts that appear only on compiled third-party college directories
NIRF Graduation Outcomes (GO) is the honest substitute for placement-intent browsing — an independent metric, not a package figure.
Explore the directory
Zone id: /colleges/region/south