On July 21, 2022, NITI Aayog, Government of India released the 3rd edition of India Innovation Index 2021. The India Innovation Index, jointly prepared by Institute for Competitiveness and NITI Aayog, is a thorough instrument for assessing and developing the nation's innovation ecosystem. To foster healthy competition among them, it rates the States and Union Territories (UT) based on how well they perform in terms of innovation.
The India Innovation Index 2021 follows the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index state-by-state rankings based on the innovation environment and accomplishments of the Union Territories and States in India. On the Global Innovation Index, India stood 46th.
The key characteristics of the India Innovation Index are as follows:
- At the State and Union Territories level, the index examines the ecosystems and innovation capabilities, such as human capital, investments, knowledge workers, business environment, safety and legal environment, knowledge output and knowledge diffusion.
- The report highlights recent factors and catalysts in promoting competitive federalism to further support COVID-19 like crisis-driven innovation.
- The report provides 66 new and unique indicators to measure innovation performance across the Nation for example research & development, market sophistication, trade competition & market scale, digital infrastructure, legal & regulatory environment, knowledge creation impact and dissemination, intangible assets, creative goods and services and the like.
- 17 major states, 9 UTs, and 10 northeast & hill states are compared for their performance based on the above parameters.
- The State of Karnataka (Score 18.01) stands first for the third time consecutively followed by the State of Haryana and Telangana.
- Manipur (19.37) is rated as the top performer among the North-Eastern & Hilly States. Meghalaya and Uttarakhand are ranked second and third, respectively.
- The top scorer among Union Territories is Chandigarh (Score 27.88) followed by Delhi (Score 27.00).
The India Innovation Index 2021 is evidence of the Indian Government's ongoing dedication to making the nation an innovation-driven economy. The report by the Government think tank has recommended actions, such as raising gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GDERD), encouraging private sector involvement in R&D, and bridging the gap between industry demand and what the nation produces through its educational systems. India's average innovation score is arguably insufficient, given the country's ambitious targets to be named among the top 25 nations in the Global Innovation Index. Therefore, it was stated, that GDERD needs significant improvement and should reach at least 2%, which will play a crucial part in India reaching the target of a $5 trillion economy by 2025 and further influence its inventive footprint on the world.
