The Global Innovation Index (GII) rates 132 economies based on their capacity for innovation using 80 indicators to track global innovation trends. The GII 2023 rankings that were published by WIPO yesterday saw Switzerland topping the list for the 13th time, followed by Sweden and the USA.
India, on the other hand, has retained the 40th rank out of 132 economies, making it one of the only five middle-income economies to be ranked amongst the top 40 economies. It has also scored the highest rank in the lower middle-income group, followed by Vietnam and Ukraine. This is considerable progress from when it was ranked 66th in 2013, making India one of the top climbers of the decade 2013-2023.
India’s Chapter of the GII Rankings has determined India’s output rank as 35 and input rank as 45. It states that while India has done fairly well in some areas, such as ‘Market Sophistication’ and ‘Knowledge and Technology Outputs’ with the 20th and 22nd ranks, respectively, it has scored poorly in ‘Infrastructure’ (84th), ‘Business Sophistication’ (57th) and ‘Institutions’ (56th), which is a matter of concern. The good news is that India has scored really high in certain indicators such as Domestic market scale, bn PPP$, (rank 1), ICT services exports, % total trade (rank 5) and VC received, value, % GDP (rank 6). What’s concerning is that its rankings in certain indicators such as Environmental performance (rank 131), Tertiary inbound mobility, % (rank 110), Females employed w/advanced degrees, % (rank 106), ICT use (rank 103), ICT access (rank 101) and Pupil-teacher ratio, secondary (101) etc. were low.
In response to GII 2023, NITI Aayog’s Press Release says that it will virtually host the India Launch of the GII 2023 tomorrow in collaboration with the CII and WIPO.
