India Innovation Index 2021 : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Phrases: India Innovation Index 2021, NITI Aayog’s, Institute for Competitiveness, Human Capital, Investment, Knowledge Workers, Business Environment, Safety and Legal Environment, Global Innovation Index, Gross expenditure on R&D, GDP, R&D performance, Research publications.

Why in News?

Recently, India Innovation Index Report 2021 was released by NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog.
This is the third edition of the Report. Karnataka, Manipur and Chandigarh have topped in their respective categories.

What is NITI Aayog’s Innovation Index?

The India Innovation Index is released by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness every year.
The index attempts to create an extensive framework for the continuous evaluation of the innovation environment in all States and Union Territories. It ranks them on the basis of their scores.
In 2019 the country’s first innovation index was rolled out to help States and Union Territories to promote environmentally and socially sustainable economic development through innovation-induced policy interventions.
The third edition highlights the scope of innovation analysis in the country by drawing on the framework of 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). The indicators are now distributed across 16 sub-pillars, which, in turn, form seven key pillars.
The India Innovation Index 2021 is a testament to the Government of India’s continued commitment to transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.
The India Innovation Index also contributes to the Government’s effort to monitor select global indices through the Global Indices to drive Reform and Growth (GIRG) mechanism, for which the NITI Aayog is the nodal organization.

Parameter of the India Innovation Index 2021:

There are 7 pillars in the index.

Five ‘Enabler’ pillars measure the inputs. i.e.
- Human Capital
- Investment
- Knowledge Workers
- Business Environment
- Safety and Legal Environment
Two ‘Performance’ pillars measure the output.
- Knowledge Output
- Knowledge Diffusion

In last year’s edition, there were 36 indicators, this year there are 66 indicators.

Key findings of India Innovation Index 2021:

Top three performers among 17 major States are:
- Karnataka,
- Telangana and
- Haryana
Telangana and Haryana have replaced Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu at second and third positions, respectively.
Bihar has improved its rank from 17 in 2020 to 15 in 2021.
In the separate category for 10 North-Eastern and hilly States,
- Meghalaya has been ranked at number three in 2021 from 10th in 2020.
- Manipur (at 3 in 2020) relegated Himachal Pradesh to fifth position by reaching the number one position.
- Uttarakhand retained its second rank in 2021.
- Nagaland, Assam and Tripura are at the bottom of the index at 10th, 9th and 8th position, respectively.

Is this index similar to the Global Innovation Index (GII)?

The 2021 edition of the Index has matched the GII framework to bring out a more comprehensive and nuanced index to measure the innovation performance.
Overall, the current edition has adopted the GII framework.
Still, believes that the coming editions of the index need to be expanded by adding 19 more indicators across all sub-pillars, especially knowledge absorption, to make it at par with GII.

India vs. World on Innovation:

India’s performance in the Global Innovation Index (GII)
- From the 60th position in 2017, India reached the 46th spot in 2021.
- India was ranked 1st among the Central and South Asian nations and 2nd among the lower-middle-income countries.

Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) per capita
- India’s GERD is one of the lowest in the world, with just USD 43 per capita.
- India needs to boost this expenditure and at least be on a par with its BRICS or ASEAN counterparts like Russia (285), Brazil (173), and Malaysia (293).

GERD as a percentage of GDP
- India’s GERD as a percentage of GDP has been consistent and hovered around 0.7% for about a decade.
- This is even lower than Brazil (1.16), South Africa (0.83) and others.
- Only Mexico (0.31) had a lower share of GERD as a percentage of GDP.
- With such low contribution, R&D performance remains stagnant.

Research publications
- India has published more research papers than even countries like Russia, Brazil, and South Korea, among others.
- Moreover, India accounted for 4.1% of the world’s total citations in the year 2016 (DST, 2019–20).
- This proves that given more opportunities in research, Indians can grow its R&D.

Way forward:

The objective of the report is to assess innovation at the State level by ranking the States and Union Territories on their performance in fostering an innovative ecosystem.
The States can Utilize it to identify their strengths and weaknesses, compared to their peers, and develop a better policy framework to drive innovation at the sub-national level.
The 2021 edition has increased the number of indicators from 36 to 66 individual indicators, across 7 core pillars. Further, the methodology has been modified to consolidate the statistical basis of the index and attempts to provide a crisp and accurate outcome.
The coming editions of the index need to be expanded by introducing 19 indicators across all sub-pillars, especially knowledge absorption.
It would further enhance the data granularity of current indicators. Future editions can be strengthened by focusing on certain important elements such as:
- Focus on factors that lead to better performance
- Focus on challenges that cause low performance
- Peer to peer learning and state-specific policies

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q “Innovation is critical in promoting the country’s resilience and self-reliance”. Discuss the statement in the light of India’s performance in the Global Innovation Index.