India improved its rank by five places to stand at 52nd in an index of the world’s most innovative economies and maintained its position as the top exporter of IT services, according to a report released Wednesday. The country’s three cities, Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi, also featured in the world’s top 100 science and technology clusters, according to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019.
The GII ranks 129 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.
Switzerland retained its number-one spot on the GII rankings. It was followed by Sweden, the US, the Netherlands, the UK, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Germany and Israel in the top 10 places.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal released the Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings here.
Goyal said that the government is committed to further improving the ranking as innovation is key for the country’s economic growth. “I assure you that going forward, the country will not rest until we achieve the target of coming in the top 25th and then in top 10th in the world.”
India maintained its top place in the Central and Southern Asia region.
The country improved its position the most in certain pillars including labour productivity growth, knowledge and technology outputs, intellectual property related variables. It also witnessed improvement in institutions, human capital and research, and market sophistication indicators.
Notable gains were also found in political and operational stability where a new indicator is used this year and in ease of starting a business.
It, however, lagged logistics performance and females employed with advanced degrees. “The largest drops are found in logistics performance, females employed with advanced degrees, and printing and other media,” the report said.
DPIIT Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said that the government is working to improve its intellectual property rights (IPR) regime.
“We are increasing manpower, simplifying procedures and using technology to significantly reduce the time for examination of applications,” Abhishek said. The GII rankings are published annually by Cornell University, INSEAD and the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and GII Knowledge Partners. Industry body CII has been the GII knowledge partner since 2009.