Modify global innovation index methodology

Switzerland is the most innovative economy worldwide for the sixth consecutive year, while Romania climbed six positions compared with last year, being ranked 48th out of 128 states included in the Global Innovation Index, according to a report released on Wednesday by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations specialized agency.

India has improved its innovation ranking in GII to reach 66th position from its last year’s rank of 81st; this improvement in the rank for India comes after 5 years of continuous drop in its ranking, she highlighted.

The government will set up a dedicated group to identify, and expeditiously implement, measures to improve India’s innovation ranking, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

“When you look at venture capital funding as a proportion of GDP, India is doing far better than even China though their GDP base is larger”, Mr. Datta said.

The report has stated that India shows weakness in two sub-pillars of business environment and education.

“The commitment of India to innovation and improved innovation metrics is strong and growing, helping to improve the innovation environment”.

“I will form a group to look into the results of this report (in the index)”. World Intellectual Property Organisation chief Francis Gurry was also present at the event hosted by NITI Aayog, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The report also noted that India’s priorities for innovation need to be in the areas of energy, water, transport, health care, food security and digital consumption, the index said that India should strengthen its own talent pool and leverage global talent “in these market-pull areas”. Ms. Sitharaman’s remarks appeared to be in response to Cornell University dean Soumitra Dutta who said at the same event that India must work on enhancing its innovation brand and scale up investments in research and development.

To spur an innovative ecosystem across the country, it was proposed that states be ranked on a similar basis.