NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index: The Third edition of the India Innovation Index was recently released by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery at an event in the NITI Bhawan.

Key Highlights:

• The India Innovation Index 2022 was released on 21 July 2022 in the presence of Dr. V K Saraswat, Member; Shri Parameswaran Iyer, Chief Executive Officer and other esteemed dignitaries.
• The India Innovation Index 2021 provides state-wise rankings on the basis of innovation landscape and performance of states and union territories in India
• The first edition was released in October 2019 and second in January 2021.

Key Features of India Innovation Index 2021:

• The India Innovation Index 2021 is set against the backdrop of the pandemic, which has disrupted the global demographic landscape.
• It examines innovation capacities and ecosystems at the sub-national level and highlights the recent factors and catalysts for promoting such crisis-driven innovation.
• The third edition has been prepared on the basis of Global Innovation Index (GII), which is published by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), on annual basis.
• It is based on 7 pillars viz., human capital, investment, business environment, safety & legal environment, knowledge workers, knowledge output, and knowledge diffusion.
• It provides a more comprehensive outlook to measure innovation performance across country based on 66 new & unique indicators, as opposed to 36 indicators in India Innovation Index 2020.
• 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.
• A special section has also been introduced in the India Innovation Index 2021 for showcasing the detailed analysis of the drivers of innovation, by evaluating the improvement in the indicators.
• The states can assess their position and the factors that led to a change in their ranking vis-à-vis that in the India Innovation Index 2020.

According to the Index released -

• Manipur (Score 18.01) secured the lead in the Northeast and Hill States category.
• Chandigarh (Score 27.88) was the top performer in the Union Territories and City States category.
• Karnataka (Score 18.01) has topped Niti Aayog's India Innovation Index 2022 among major states.

• The report attributed Karnataka's high score to its peak performance in attracting FDI, or foreign direct investment, and a large number of venture capital deals.

• Telangana, Haryana and Maharashtra stood second, third and fourth in the list of top states.

What is India Innovation Index?

• The India Innovation Index is prepared by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness.
• It is a comprehensive tool for the evaluation and development of the country’s innovation ecosystem.
• The index ranks states and union territories on their innovation performance to encourage healthy competition between them.
• The number of indicators in the index has increased from 36 to 66.
• They are now distributed across 16 sub-pillars and 7 key pillars.

 The 7 pillars are –

1. Human capital,
2. Investment,
3. Business environment,
4. Safety & legal environment,
5. Knowledge workers,
6. Knowledge output, and
7. Knowledge diffusion.