Geneva/Mumbai: India has made a big leap in Global Innovation Index (GII) in 2016 as it has jumped by 15 positions to become 66th most innovative nation in the world. China breaks into the world’s 25 most-innovative economies club, while Switzerland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Finland and Singapore lead the 2016 rankings in the Global Innovation Index, released by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) yesterday (15 August 2016). Last year India was ranked at 81 place (out of 141 countries). This year the global rankings are issued to 128 countries.
In press statement released globally by The Global Innovation Index (GII) said that India, 66th, is the top-ranked economy in Central and Southern Asia, showing particular strengths in tertiary education and R&D, including global R&D intensive firms, the quality of its universities and scientific publications, its market sophistication and ICT service exports where it ranks first in the world. India also over-performs in innovation relative to its GDP. It ranks second on innovation quality amongst middle-income economies, overtaking Brazil. However, the report stated that relative weaknesses exist in the indicators for business environment, education expenditures, new business creations and the creative goods and services production.
“The commitment of India to innovation and improved innovation metrics is strong and growing, helping to improve the innovation environment. This trend will help gradually lift India closer to other top-ranked innovation economies”, says Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Following India in the region are Kazakhstan (75th), the Islamic Republic of Iran (78th), Tajikistan (86th), Sri Lanka (91st), and Bhutan (96th).
Among the GII 2016 leaders, four economies — Japan, the U.S., the UK, and Germany— stand out in “innovation quality,” a top-level indicator that looks at the caliber of universities, number of scientific publications and international patent filings. China moves to 17th place in innovation quality, making it the leader among middle-income economies for this indicator, followed by India which has overtaken Brazil.
“Investing in innovation is critical to raising long-term economic growth,” says WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “In this current economic climate, uncovering new sources of growth and leveraging the opportunities raised by global innovation are priorities for all stakeholders.”
The GII theme this year is “Winning with Global Innovation.” The report explores the rising share of innovation carried out via globalized innovation networks, finding that gains from global innovation can be shared more widely as cross-border flows of knowledge and talent are on the rise. The report also concludes that there is ample scope to expand global corporate and public R&D cooperation to foster future economic growth. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is one of the Knowledge partners of the Global Index.
