India releases Innovation Index 2020 to instil an innovation ecosystem
While innovation has always been pivotal for higher productivity and economic growth, it is also crucial for bolstering a post-crisis economy. Over the last decade, India has laid a policy emphasis on innovation as a growth strategy. Innovation is at the forefront of India’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ initiatives. The aim is to make in India, innovate in India, and transform the Indian economy.
To establish a culture of innovation amongst the states, NITI Aayog had introduced India Innovation Index in 2019. One year after, India is on the right path of an innovation-driven economy. The index has served as a useful tool for state governments to assess their innovation landscape. It has also helped create synergies between different stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. The study aims to help relevant stakeholders track the regional progress on innovation ecosystems and inform policy choices that can address the identified gaps, and to perform two objectives – to rank the states and the union territories based on their relative performance and empower them to improve their innovation policies by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The 2020 edition of the index builds upon its maiden edition with new indicators for a more robust assessment of the innovation ecosystem.
The India Innovation Index is the outcome of extensive research and analysis for evaluating India’s innovation readiness at a sub-national level, highlighting the obstacles that deter governments, businesses, and individuals from fully capturing the benefits of innovation. The second edition of the index allows states to continue to evaluate their innovation environment and assess their progress. The current index provides a comprehensive framework to examine the sub-national innovation ecosystem across India. It benchmarks the states' performance against their peers, to better understand the reasons for differential performance and the areas of strengths and weaknesses. The division of innovation into two dimensions – innovation capabilities (enablers) and innovation outcomes (performance) – gives the states a better perspective for identifying the critical focus areas. The index intends to create an environment where innovation factors are under constant re-evaluation.
The India Innovation Index depicts the innovation landscape of the country at the sub-national level. It portrays the innovative capabilities of the States and helps them to assess their capacities in identifying the potential areas to boost the development of innovation-led entrepreneurship and attract start-ups and similar enterprises. It is expected that the second iteration of the index will help in providing detailed insights into and a vivid picture of the innovation ecosystem at both the national and sub-national levels. This would transform India into an innovation-driven economy, thereby cementing its position as an emerging global leader.
It is anticipated that India Innovation Index 2020 can help the country recognise the critical areas of developmental intervention, with innovation as the central driver for growth, and prove to be a potent tool for all the states and union territories in their collective journey to make India an innovation-driven economy.
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