In News:

• Karnataka has bagged the top rank in NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index, 2021.

What’s in Today’s Article:

• India Innovation Index
• News Summary

India Innovation Index

• The India Innovation Index is a comprehensive tool for the evaluation and development of the country’s innovation ecosystem.
• It is prepared by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness.
• It ranks the states and the union territories on their innovation performance to build healthy competition amongst them.
• India Innovation Index 2021 is the third edition of this report.
  • India Innovation Index 2019 was the first edition.

Methodology

• The latest framework of the index has been mapped from the Global Innovation Index.
• The number of indicators has increased from 36 (in the India Innovation Index 2020) to 66 (in the India Innovation Index 2021).
• 
  • All the indicators in the Enabler pillars cover features crucial for promoting innovation within a state/union territory.
  • Indicators in the Performance pillars represent a nation’s output in knowledge creation and competitiveness.
• The report segregates all the States/UTs in three categories
  • Major States
  • North East and Hill States
  • UT and City states

News Summary

• NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery released the India Innovation Index 2021.

Key Highlights

• 
• Top Performers
  • Karnataka has bagged the top rank among the category of major states.
    • Karnataka’s high score can be attributed to its peak performance in attracting FDI and a large number of venture capital deals.
  • Manipur secured the lead in the Northeast and Hill States category.
  • Chandigarh was the top performer in the Union Territories and City States category.
• Worst performers
  • Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Gujarat were at the bottom of the index among major states category.
  • In NE and Hill States category, Nagaland, Assam, Tripura and Mizoram were at the bottom.
  • Similarly, in UT and City States category, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu were at the bottom.
• India’s average innovation score is insufficient
  • The report highlighted that India’s ambitious target is to be named among the top 25 nations in the Global Innovation Index (GII).
    • GII ranks the innovation ecosystem performance of economies around the globe each year.
    • It is released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in partnership with other institutions.
    • India was ranked 46th in the GII 2021 rankings.
  • Against this, the current report noted that India’s average innovation score is insufficient.
    • The overall index score is about 14.56.
• Suggestions given
  • The report has recommended measures, such as:
    • increasing Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GDERD),
    • promoting private sector participation in R&D
    • closing the gap between industry demand and what the country produces through its education systems.
• Importance of Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GDERD) highlighted
  • The report went on to state that countries that spend less on GDERD fail to retain their human capital in the long run.
  • It affects their abilities to innovate as this ability is highly dependent on the quality of human capital.
  • Currently, India’s GDERD as a percentage of GDP stood at about 0.7%.
  • Hence, the report suggested that GDERD needs considerable improvement and should touch at least 2%.
    • This would play an instrumental role in achieving the goal of 5 trillion economy.
• Private sector needs to pick up pace in R&D
  • The report noted that public expenditure is productive up to some extent; once the growth follows a trajectory, it is desirable to shift to R&D mostly drive by the private sector.
  • It gave example of countries such as South Korea, and the U.S. where the presence of private players is evident.
  • Therefore, it is important for India to find that inflexion point after which private sector takes over the government sector.