India has decided to award government-sponsored research projects to deserving private institutions of higher education—breaking from earlier policy to give such projects only to government-financed universities—said Kapil Sibal, India’s minister in charge of higher education, according to Mint newspaper. Speaking at an event where the Indian School of Business announced a partnership with Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy to set up an institute on public policy, Mr. Sibal said India needed more institutions to help the government formulate policies in specialized areas. Mr. Sibal added that the government is ready to collaborate with the Indian School of Business—ranked 12th in the world by the Financial Times’s Global Business School Rankings 2010—even though it is not recognized by an Indian regulator. “We are changing the norms,” Mr. Sibal said, lauding the Indian school for being ranked so high within a mere 10 years of being established, the Press Trust of India reported.