NITI Aayog Releases Second Edition of India Innovation Index

Overall Delhi Tops the List, Chandigarh Major Gainer, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh Lead in Their Respective Categories

NITI Aayog, along with the Institute for Competitiveness, released the second edition of the India Innovation Index in a virtual event. 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.

The India Innovation Index 2020was released by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, in the presence of Member (Health) Dr VK Paul, Member (Agriculture) Dr Ramesh Chand, CEO Amitabh Kant, Adviser (Science and Technology) Neeraj Sinha, and Institute for Competitiveness Chair Dr Amit Kapoor.

The event was attended by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Secretary Dr Shekhar C. Mande, Department of Biotechnology Secretary Dr Renu Swarup, Ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary Dr MN Rajeevan, Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, and Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Secretary Dr Kshatrapati Shivaji, among others.

In the second edition too, theindex 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. Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab completed the top ten in that order. Karnataka’s rank is attributable to its substantive number of venture capital deals, registered geographical indicators and information and communications technology exports. Karnataka’s high Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow has also enhanced the innovation capabilities of the state. 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.

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.

During the event, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumarsaid, ‘The India Innovation Index will create synergies between different stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, thus enabling India to shift to competitive good governance.’ He also said the 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.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, ‘The India Innovation Index is a major step towards measuring innovation outcomes of states and facilitating optimal utilization of national and state mechanismsto 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,’ said NITI Aayog Adviser Neeraj Sinha.

Dr Amit Kapoor, Chair, Institute for Competitiveness, said, ‘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.

The full document can be accessed here:  https://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-01/IndiaInnovationReport2020Book.pdf

Innovation Index promotes competitive federalism by ranking states' innovation capacities and guiding targeted policy interventions. NITI Aayog released the second India Innovation Index, ranking states and union territories by innovation capacity using five enabler parameters (Human Capital; Investment; Knowledge Workers; Business Environment; Safety and Legal Environment) and two performance parameters (Knowledge Output; Knowledge Diffusion), aiming to benchmark regional performance, identify policy priorities, and promote competitive federalism to strengthen subnational innovation ecosystems.