Policy-led innovations in areas like electric vehicles, bio-technology, nanotechnology, space and alternative energy sources are cited as reasons

Climbing up four places, India is now among the top 50 innovative countries in the world and the top most innovative nation in the Central and Southern Asian region. The Global Innovation Index (GII), released by World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and Cornell University and INSEAD Business School jointly, put India at the 48th position against 52nd of 2019.

The GII shows Switzerland, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom holding the top positions while the chart also shows a gradual ‘eastward shift in the locus of innovation,’ The New Indian Express reports.

The GII suggests while the top 10 positions are held by high-income countries, Asian economies like China, India, the Philippines and Vietnam have seen advancements over the years. In fact, India is now the third most innovative lower middle-income economy in the world.

According to the Index, India has its rankings in the top 15 indicators. These indicators include Information and Communication Technology service exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering and Research and Development intensive global companies.

The GII gave credit to several science and technology institutes of India for the country to make it this far.

“Thanks to universities such as the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, and its top scientific publications, India is the lower middle-income economy with the highest innovation quality,” an official statement said.

A statement released by WIPO mentioned India among the leading innovation achievers in the Central and Southern Asian region in 2019. The Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology and Department of Space also helped enrich the innovative ecosystem, the statement said.

“The consistent improvement in the global innovation index rankings is owing to the immense knowledge capital, the vibrant startup ecosystem, and the amazing work done by the public & private research organization,” the statement said.

The global ranking agencies have also given credit to the steps taken by NITI Aayog to bring policy-led innovation in areas like electric vehicles, bio-technology, nanotechnology, space and alternative energy sources. The credit was given to several schemes of PM Modi’s administration including the recent ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ scheme.

The statement that India should now aim for the top 25. “It is time that India brings a paradigm shift and aims to be in the top 25 countries in the next global innovation index rankings,” it said.

The GII rankings were released after analysing 131 countries on the basis of institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs and creative outputs.

Read the full report in The New Indian Express