• The third-edition of India Innovation Index was released by NITI Aayog.
• The first and second editions were released in October, 2019 and January, 2021, respectively.

The India Innovation Index:

• The India Innovation Index was 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.
• The states and the union territories have been divided into 17 ‘Major States’, 10 ‘North-East and Hill States’, and 9 ‘Union Territories and City States’, for effectively comparing their performance.
• Karnataka has bagged the top rank in India Innovation Index, 2021.
• The number of indicators in the index have increased from 36 (viz. India Innovation Index 2020) to 66 and are now distributed across 16 sub-pillars and 7 key pillars.
• In the Index 2022, Manipur secured the lead in the Northeast and Hill States category, while Chandigarh was the top performer in the Union Territories and City States category.
• Karnataka was followed by Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
• Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Gujarat were at the bottom of the index.

Suggestions made by the Report :

• India’s average innovation score (around 14%) is insufficient, given the country’s ambitious targets to be named among the top 25 nations in the Global Innovation Index.
• It has recommended measures, such as increasing Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GDERD), promoting private sector participation in R&D and closing the gap between industry demand and what the country produces through its education systems.
• The report also states that countries that spend less on GDERD fail to retain their human capital in the long run and the ability to innovate is dependent on the quality of human capital.
• India’s GDERD as a percentage of GDP stood at about 7%.
• “Therefore, GDERD needs considerable improvement and should touch at least 2%, which would play an instrumental role in India achieving the goal of a 5 trillion economy and further influence its innovative footprint across the globe.

Global Innovation Index :

• The Global Innovation Index (GII) takes the pulse of the most recent global innovation trends.
• The GII was released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• It ranks the innovation ecosystem performance of economies around the globe each year while highlighting innovation strengths and weaknesses and particular gaps in innovation metrics.
• The Index comprises around 80 indicators, including measures on the political environment, education, infrastructure and knowledge creation of each economy.
• India has ranked 46^th in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2021 rankings.

Model Question :

Which of the following indices are released by NITI Aayog

1. India Innovation Index
2. School Education Quality Index
3. State Health Index
4. Composite Water Management Index

Select the correct answer using the code given below :

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 2, 3 and 4 only
3. 1, 3 and 4 only
4. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer : D

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