India Innovation Index

Context: NITI Aayog along with the Institute for Competitiveness Releases Second Edition of India Innovation Index.

• The report examines the innovation capabilities and performance of the states and union territories.
• The first edition of the index was launched in October 2019.

Highlights:

• Overall Delhi Tops the List, Chandigarh Major Gainer, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh Lead in Their Respective Categories.
• In the second edition the index found that the level of competitiveness among the states and union territories was high, which is essential for them to continually improve on their enabling factors as well as innovation performance, year by year.
• In the ‘Major States’ category, Karnataka continued to occupy the top position, while Maharashtra moved past Tamil Nadu to reach the second place.
  • Karnataka’s rank is attributable to its substantive number of venture capital deals, registered geographical indicators and information andcommunications technology exports.
  • Karnataka’s high Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow has also enhanced the innovation capabilities of the state.
• Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab completed the top ten in that order.
• Four southern states—Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala—occupied the top five spots under the ‘Major States’ category this year.
• Overall, Delhi retained its first rank, while Chandigarh made a big leap since 2019 and landed in the second place this year.
• Under the ‘North-Eastern/Hill States’ category, Himachal Pradesh moved up from the second position to emerge as the top ranker this year, while 2019’s top performer (in this category), Sikkim, slipped down to the fourth position.

Parameters

• The innovation inputs were measured through five enabler parameters, and the output through two performance parameters.
• While ‘Human Capital’, ‘Investment’, ‘Knowledge Workers’, ‘Business Environment’, ‘Safety and Legal Environment’ were identified as enabler parameters.
• ‘Knowledge Output’ and ‘Knowledge Diffusion’ were chosen as the performance parameters.

Significance:

• The India Innovation Index will create synergies between different stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, thus enabling India to shift to competitive good governance.’
• Index is a great beginning to improve the innovation environment in the country.
• It is the right step towards making India the innovation leader of the world.
• The India Innovation Index is a major step to facilitate optimal utilization of national and state mechanisms to realize the goal of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.’
• The index could be of vital significance to the states in identifying their innovation performance and initiating necessary policy interventions to leverage their unique strengths.
• The index can help the Central and state governments to benchmark regional performance with respect to innovation, and provide policy insights on what needs to be done to improve and enhance it.
• The India Innovation Index aims to create an extensive framework for the continual evaluation of India’s innovation environment.
• The index aims to rank states and UTs based on their scores, recognize opportunities and challenges, and assist in tailoring government policies to foster innovation.

• NITI Aayog, with its mandate of promoting ‘competitive federalism’ among all states and union territories, is committed to utilize the India Innovation Index in catalysing the innovation outcome of the nation.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1690487