India jumps 4 places on Global Innovation Index to enter top 50 league

India has moved four places on the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020 to rank at 48 since 2019. This makes it the third-most innovative lower middle-income economy in the world, according to the report. India at the 48th place also retains the highest rank in the central and southern Asia region.

The index, compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), along with Cornell University and the INSEAD Business School, presents the latest global innovation trends and annual innovation ranking of 131 economies.

India increased the most in three pillars: Institutions (61, from 77 in 2019), business sophistication (55, from 65 in 2019), and creative outputs (64, from 78 in 2019), it noted.

Under institutions, the country’s rank on indicators, such as political and operational stability (from 91 to 83), government effectiveness (from 65 to 55), and ease of resolving insolvency (from 95 to 47), improved remarkably.

Under business sophistication, indicators such as expenditure financed by business was not available last year; this time India came in at 48.

India also bettered its rank in both intellectual property payments (27, from 29 in 2019) and research talent (38, from 46 in 2019).

Under creative outputs, India increased its ranking by a combination of performance improvements and model changes. It gained 18 places in cultural and creative services exports to 21 and it ranked 31 on the new indicator on global brands, thanks to its 164 brands in the top 5,000, led by Tata Group.

However, India continued to lag in infrastructure, even as it moved up four notches to come in at 75, from 79 in  2019. Also, it lost seven places to move down to 60 in human capital and research, from 53 in 2019.

India came out as an innovation achiever for the tenth consecutive year. It was so because India was on the list of the first 10 countries, income-group wise.

However, Vietnam continued to leave India behind by coming in at 42, topping the list of lower middle-income group. Ukraine came in second, improving its ranking to 45, from 47 in 2019.

The report titled Who Will Finance Innovation? said gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) in India increased to $63.2 billion in purchasing power parity terms in 2017–2018, from $50.3 billion in 2014–2015, accounting for 2.9-per cent share in the world.

GERD in India is mainly driven by the government sector, of which 45.4 per cent is the central government, 6.4 per cent state governments, 6.8 per cent higher education, and 41.4 per cent industry — with 4.6 per cent from public sector industry and 36.8 per cent from the private sector during the year.

Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of the Confederation of Indian Industry, which is a partner of WIPO in India, said, “The GII report could be India’s one-stop reference to plan and accelerate our journey towards the future we imagine for our people. I encourage you to refer to this report, discuss it with others, and consider ways we can improve as individual nations and as a global community.”