chennai even as the national accreditation regulatory authority bill for higher education remains to be passed by parliament the countrys first private accreditation body came into being on friday registered as a nonprofit council the indian centre for assessment and accreditation icaa with manipal university head t v mohandas pai as chairman and former university grants commission ugc chairman arun nigavekar as chief advisor aims at monitoring and assessing universities on a set of criteria that would keep in mind the domestic realities and international expectations at a press conference here mohandas pai said universities would be ranked based on access equity and quality within nine months a complete set of procedures will be in place he said there are two government accreditation agencies in the country the national assessment and accreditation council and the national board of accreditation in 19 years these agencies have accredited only 28 of universities and 14 of colleges said s p thyagarajan former vicechancellor of the university of madras with grading of colleges gaining recognition its time we had a private body that will ensure transparency while assessing universities and colleges some of the icaa members stressed the decline in global ranking of indian varsities over the years while in 2009 and 2010 some indian institutes of technology were within the top 200 no indian university featured in the top 200 in 2012 according to 2011 rating of ukbased quacquarelli symonds qs which specializes in education and study abroad in 2012 chinese varsities made it to the top 50 and a few middle east institutions to the top 100 the council said private agencies will be allowed to rate institutions to create a healthy competitive environment according to the national accreditation regulatory authority for higher educational institutions bill 2010 icaa which has partnered qs will include agricultural scientist m s swaminathan scientist v ponraj vit chancellor g viswanathan and national university of singapore vicepresident prof seeram ramakrishna as its council members it will function under the human resource development ministry