IMI Delhi rankings: compare the publisher and category first
IMI Delhi appears in several ranking systems, but the positions do not measure the same thing. The latest NIRF position listed on IMI’s ranking page is 40th in India in the Management category for 2025. The Financial Times places IMI Delhi’s Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) at 90th in its global Masters in Management 2026 table. A separate FT table places IMI Delhi 69th in Masters in Finance pre-experience 2026. IMI also lists a 15th overall Business Today position for 2026.
These are four different comparisons: an Indian management-institution ranking, a global pre-experience management programme ranking, a global pre-experience finance ranking, and a Business Today–MDRA Indian B-school survey. A rank number has meaning only with its publisher, category, year and cohort. Do not compare FT’s 90 directly with NIRF’s 40 or treat the finance table as a rank for every IMI programme.
NIRF: the India Management series
IMI’s official ranking list records NIRF Management positions of 34th in 2023, 40th in 2024 and 40th in 2025. On that series, IMI’s listed position moved down six places from 2023 to 2024 and was unchanged in 2025. This is a description of the sequence, not a claim that the institute’s quality declined and then stopped changing: a rank is relative to other participating institutions and can move when peers’ scores or the ranking set change.
The NIRF category is Management and the listed positions are in India. It is not a university-wide or overall-in-India position. IMI’s separate NIRF Data page has a link for its 2026 Management submission, but that is a submission link rather than a published 2026 rank. The latest NIRF result shown on IMI’s ranking page during this review remains 2025. The direct NIRF result page returned a 403 response in this retrieval, so check the Ministry’s ranking page for the official score and category details when it is reachable.
NIRF is useful for a domestic comparison within the same year and category. A movement from 34 to 40 does not by itself explain which input changed, how close scores were, or whether a particular programme improved. The institute’s NIRF submission archive helps readers locate annual documents; it is not itself an award rank. Keep the submission and final ranking separate when reading future updates.
Financial Times: two different global tables
In FT’s Masters in Management 2026 ranking, IMI Delhi is listed at number 90 among 100 schools. The FT school profile identifies the programme as Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM). It records ranks of 86 in 2024, 99 in 2025 and 90 in 2026. The profile therefore shows a nine-place move upward in 2026 from 2025, while the 2026 position remains four places below the 2024 result. That comparison is valid within the same FT MiM series; it does not show a trend across NIRF or another publisher’s survey.
FT’s other entry is Masters in Finance pre-experience 2026, where IMI Delhi is ranked 69th. The profile lists a 68th-place result for 2025 and 69th in 2026. The 2026 ranking page includes 70 schools. This is a distinct finance category and should not be described as the PGDM (B&FS) rank unless IMI or FT explicitly connects that programme to the ranking entry. The school profile does not state the programme name there, so this guide leaves that link unresolved.
The two FT ranks use global tables with different subject definitions and eligible programme pools. A #69 in the finance table is not automatically “better” than #90 in the management table, and neither is a domestic rank. For applicants, the MiM entry is the closer published match to the general PGDM name because FT names PGDM in the profile. Applicants considering HRM or Banking & Financial Services should verify whether those distinct programmes share the same ranking entry before applying the result to them.
Business Today: an overall Indian survey position
IMI’s ranking page lists a 15th overall position under Business Today for 2026. The publisher’s Business Today–MDRA page describes its B-school ranking and says only schools that submit objective data are ranked; it also states eligibility conditions including at least three batches passed out and a full-time postgraduate management programme. That participation rule matters: the comparison set is the group included in that survey, not every institution in India.
The publisher page opened here explains the survey but did not expose IMI’s row in its text. For that reason, this page attributes the #15 position to IMI’s own ranking list rather than presenting an independently checked Business Today table result. If the exact Business Today score or participating-school comparison is important to your shortlist, verify it in the edition’s final table and methodology before relying on the position.
How to use the ranking evidence
For a domestic shortlist, compare IMI’s NIRF Management 2025 position with other schools’ NIRF Management 2025 positions. For a global PGDM comparison, use FT Masters in Management 2026 and compare other programmes in that same list. Use FT Masters in Finance only when the finance-table scope fits your question, and confirm the programme association before mapping it to B&FS. Keep Business Today within its own 2026 survey and participant rules.
Rankings are one filter, not an outcome guarantee. They do not tell an applicant whether the programme’s curriculum, total cost, location, placement results or placement-assistance rules fit their needs. Read the placement report and fee schedule for the exact batch separately. In particular, the FT profile includes programme-level data for the PGDM, while the NIRF category is institution-level; neither should be used to promise that a specific student will obtain a particular role or salary.
Before quoting a position, write down four things: publisher, category, edition and scope. If one is missing, the number is incomplete. Recheck the page when a new edition appears, and do not relabel a 2025 or 2026 rank as a 2027 result simply because the applicant is considering the 2027 intake.