<p>India’s higher education system has undergone rapid expansion, increasing the need for reliable mechanisms to evaluate institutional quality and performance. The National Institutional Ranking Framework, introduced in 2015, has emerged as a key policy instrument shaping institutional behaviour through benchmarking and performance-based competition. However, longitudinal analyses examining structural patterns within NIRF rankings remain limited. This study analyses universities appearing in the NIRF Top-100 rankings between 2016 and 2024 to investigate regional distribution, institutional persistence, and ranking mobility. Using a longitudinal dataset of 164 universities and applying persistence analysis, mobility assessment, and the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), the study identifies significant structural disparities in ranking outcomes. Results show strong regional concentration, with South India accounting for 42.68% of Top-100 universities and an HHI value of 0.2635 (2635) indicating moderate-to-high geographic concentration. Only 41.46% of institutions demonstrate sustained ranking persistence across cycles. These findings highlight systemic inequalities in research capacity and institutional resources, underscoring the need for targeted policy interventions to strengthen research ecosystems in underrepresented regions in alignment with the objectives of National Education Policy, 2020.</p>