Global Innovation Index: India moves up to 66th rank this year
Global Innovation Index for the year 2016 has been released. The
annual index — released by WIPO, Cornell University, and the multi-nation
business graduate school INSEAD — has been ranking world economies since 2007
according to their innovation capabilities using more than 80 indicators,
including education, R&D, patent filings, knowledge and technology inputs
and institutions.
Highlights:
- India scored a major improvement in its Global Innovation Index ranking this year, moving up to the 66th place from 81 in 2015. India’s better performance in the latest index readings was due to its strengths in tertiary education, software exports, corporate R&D and market sophistication.
- Among middle income countries, India (25) came second after China (17) in innovation quality, overtaking Brazil (27).
- China figured at the 25th position (29 in 2015), the only middle-income country in the top 25.
- The report said India was starting to excel in ICT and creative goods exports, setting a good example of how policy was improving the innovation environment.
- In the sub-index for government effectiveness, which captures the perceptions of quality of civil services and degree of their independence from political pressures and the quality of policy formulation and implementation, India is ranked at 82, the same as last year.
- India has also moved down in the rule of law sub-index, from 63 last year to 66 now. The index points at lowered perceptions regarding the quality of contract enforcement, property rights, the police, and courts, as well as the likelihood of crime and violence.
- In the infrastructure indicator, India has stayed put in the 87th rank, not having progressed in the use of information technology.
- Overall, Switzerland emerged as the global leader followed by Sweden, the UK, the US and Finland. Switzerland had ranked first in the 2015 index as well.
