India to launch GII Index on July 24

India will be the first emerging economy to launch the prestigious Global Innovation Index. The country has jumped 24 places in the last four years
A file photo of Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal
A file photo of Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal will launch the Global Innovation Index (GII) in New Delhi on July 24. This is the first time that the GII is being launched in an emerging economy. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) are co-hosting the event.

During the last few years, innovation has become central to the government's economic policy. This is now paying off with India's rising performance in the GII. India jumped 24 places in four years: India was 81 in 2015, rose to 66th position in 2016, India was ranked 60th in GII in 2017 and in 2018 achieved the 57th position in the Global Innovation Index.

The theme

The theme of the 2019 GII is Creating Healthy Lives — The Future of Medical Innovation, which aims to explore the role of medical innovation as it shapes the future of healthcare. India has been ranked as the most innovative country in the Central and Southern Asia Region every year since 2011. India has consistently outperformed on innovation relative to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.

The past record

India ranks as the second middle-income economy worldwide on the quality of its innovation in scientific publications, universities and patent families. It has consistently been among the top in the world on innovation parameters such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), services exports, graduates in science and engineering, the quality of universities and scientific publications, economy-wide investments and creative goods exports.

India also stands out in the GII ranking of the world's top science and technology clusters, with Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi featuring among global top 100 clusters.

The backdrop

In 2016, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion created a high-level Task Force on Innovation to improve India's innovation system based on the GII metrics. In 2017, the first international consultative exercise was organized to address India-specific data gaps in the GII, and to improve India's innovation performance. In collaboration with WIPO, the first India innovation index – focusing on ranking Indian states – was conceptualized in 2017 and released a year later.

logo
PSU Watch
psuwatch.com