Government Universities in India are those which are established and/or financed by Government of India and the state governments. Government Universities in India are established by an Act of Parliament or local legislative assembly act. UGC defines it as an academic institute established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, a Provincial Act or a State Act. Because of their close proximity with government they are duly recognised and provided funds by UGC without any fuss. Government recognized Universities in India receive various grants for various purposes like infrastructure development, improving quality of education, effective administration, supporting research facilities and so on. For some government universities in India, this funding comes directly from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Shipping & Transport. While their private counterparts may not receive them as easily or not at all because of the private administration and funding. A government university in India is also referred as a ‘Public University’ because it has been setup and/or run by public funds generated from taxes and other sources. Most of the public universities in India are affiliating universities; it means that the university can provide their assistance to college in conferring degree and/or running certain academic courses.
Indian government universities can be divided into Central Universities, Deemed to be Universities and State Universities. As of Feburary, 2016 there are 342 State Universities, 125 Deemed to be Universities and 46 Central Universities. The total reaches to 513 government universities. The state with majority of State Universities is Uttar Pradesh with a count of 24. Tamil Nadu has the most number of Deemed Universities with a total count of 28. Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh each have 5 Central Universities making them the highest regions with concentration of such universities. Within these are types are certain sub-types of Universities which are specialised in one or the another streams, for example Agricultural Universities, Medical Universities, Open Universities and few others. The number of Indian Public Universities is more; same is the case with top ranked universities in India. The primary reason was that the government policies were discriminatory and they did not encourage private participation as much as was required. However, this trend is witnessing a change as India has changed its policies regarding private universities in India as of 2011. The government is also favouring the Foreign Education Institutions (FEI) Bill which will ease the setting up of foreign universities in India. This bill will encourage even more active participation from the private players.