Ben Sowter, head of research at QS World University Rankings, also said that “with an economy the size of India’s, it’s a fundamental need for Indian higher education to be more globally competitive.”

Extensive conversations with policy makers and academics point to systemic flaws that prevent Indian universities from performing better. “The truth is, our universities are really way behind,” said Pramath Raj Sinha, a former partner at the consulting firm McKinsey who was founding dean at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

While some Indian universities had excellent researchers, Mr. Sinha said, many higher education institutions were under pressure to teach increasingly large numbers of students, which took the focus away from research. At the same time, universities lacked resources, both in terms of infrastructure and faculty, he added, noting that bright college graduates, in search of careers in academia and research, tended to go abroad, where resources for research — and pay — were better than in India.

Meenakshi Gopinath, the principal of the elite all-women’s Lady Shri Ram College at Delhi University, said, “It is a decisive moment in Indian higher education. A lot of practices that are the norm within universities abroad are only now coming into effect here. If we can tackle issues of curriculum redesign, student services, unfilled teacher vacancies, attrition, recruitment processes and infrastructure, with imagination and sensitivity, we could be poised for a major takeoff.”

One way to improve higher education is to attract good faculty. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, a professor of corporate strategy and policy at the I.I.M. in Bangalore, and a former visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, said that in its quest to expand higher education capacity, the government had prioritized quantity above quality. Faculty recruitment was difficult, he said, because academic pay scales at publicly funded institutions were pegged to civil service rates. Mr. Krishnan said that a starting professor made up to 60,000 rupees a month, or about $950, while an established professor made about 115,000 rupees a month: His wife, who obtained a Ph.D. at the same time as he did, made many times his salary in the private sector, he said.

Indian universities also have focused on teaching at the expense of research, although that is slowly changing.

“In the area of high-quality research there’s a big gap we need to bridge. For us, research is a key focus area,” said Subhasis Chaudhuri, deputy director of I.I.T. Bombay. “Today we have 2,000 students in our Ph.D. program,” he added.