In the Global Innovation Index 2020 rankings, India jumped four spots and secured ranked 48th rank by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Amidst the havoc caused by COVID-19 pandemic, the rankings came in as good news for India and also a sign of the wave of growth and development sweeping through the country.
In the previous rankings in 2019, India was positioned 52nd in the world and 81st in the rankings of the year 2015. The ascending trends show a remarkable achievement by India to be in a league of highly innovative developed nations all over the globe. The WIPO had also accepted India as one of the leading innovation achievers of 2019 in the central and southern Asian regions, as it has shown a consistent improvement in its innovation ranking for the last five years.
The consistent improvement in the global innovation index rankings is owing to the immense knowledge capital, the vibrant startup ecosystem, and the amazing work done by the public & private research organizations. The scientific ministries like the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department of Biotechnology and the Department of Space have played a pivotal role in the enriching the national innovation Ecosystem.
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The NITI Aayog has been working tirelessly to ensure optimization of national efforts in this direction by bringing policy led innovation in different areas such as EVs, biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Space, alternative energy sources, etc. The India Innovation Index, which was released last year by the NITI Aayog, has been widely accepted as the major step in the direction of decentralization of innovation across all the states of India. A constant thrust in monitoring and evaluating India’s position in global rankings has be provided by the NITI Aayog, including the global innovation index.India must aim high and double its efforts in improving its ranking in the global innovation index. The call for ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ by the Hon’ble Prime Minister could only be realized if India punches above its weight class and compete with global superpowers in developing scientific interventions. It is time that India brings a paradigm shift and aims to be in the top 25 countries in the next global innovation index rankings.
