The main purpose of this paper is to examine the dismissal performance of Indian universities around the world in the ranking system. Since the inception of the ranking system, Indian universities have not performed well and do not hold a stable position among global university ranking systems, but they continue to demonstrate the potential to compete with global universities. With the introduction and vast increase in the number of private, public, and deemed universities, competition grew among them. The need to rank and assess institutions on a national scale so as to gauge academic performance and quality led to the establishment of official government systems like the NIRF, NAAC, and NBA. Despite having all necessary national systems, India’s universities perform miserably in global rankings conducted by organizations like QS, the Times Higher Education Ranking, the Academic Ranking of World Universities, etc. In light of these considerations, research is being conducted to investigate the underachievement of Indian universities by reviewing a substantial body of literature. An exploratory approach is used to figure out the reason for Indian universities’ unsatisfactory performance in international ranking systems. To reach a conclusion, peer-reviewed articles, a government study, numerous websites, etc., have all been discussed. The study has used APA 7th Edition for citations and references. It is evident from the research that HEIs in India confront a lot of challenges and issues while imparting access to education, along with many equity issues that prevail in developing countries like India. It comprises a low gross enrollment ratio, fewer job placements, insufficient industry-oriented research and innovation, gaps in educational delivery, inadequate financial support, influences beyond the academic domain, a low faculty-student ratio, inappropriate statistics, and a lack of motivation on the part of both students and faculty toward research, research ethics, and integrity. Research output is one of the major considerations when determining a world university’s ranking, and it is strongly influenced by scholarly research, citations, the h-index, and the budget spent on R&D. Libraries play an important role in improving an institution’s research output and assisting in the provision of various sources and services required by scholars for the smooth facilitation of scholarly literature.