Global university rankings and world-class universities have become buzzwords almost in every country. Both exercise positive and not-so-positive impact on higher education systems. Universities everywhere are trying hard to improve their status and global rankings. The article reviews some of the important issues related to these two strongly emerging phenomena, and their influence on development of higher education in developing countries. A positive development is the increasing concern of the educational policymakers to improve the standards and quality in higher education institutions, and accordingly their launching of quite a few important "excellence initiatives". But the exclusive pursuit of status and ranks can have disastrous implications for the development of universities. Besides reviewing these two phenomena, the article critically reviews the approach of the Government of India in this regard.