India drops 18 places in innovation index

India has dropped 18 places in the latest Global Innovation Index as other countries have increased their efforts to foster innovation by spending more on research and development (R&D), and also by creating right environment.

According to the index for 2008-09, India is now ranked 41, compared with the previous survey’s ranking of 23.

While China occupies the 37th slot, US continues to remain on top, scoring high on most of the parameters (see table). “India’s ranking has slipped as other countries are progressing faster,” said Soumitra Dutta, who developed the methodology for the latest innovation index. “Factors that contribute to low ranking need long and consistent effort. It cannot be improved in the short term.” He was referring to India’s poor ranking in important parameters like literacy rate (ranking of 72), overall infrastructure quality (70) and university-industry research collaboration (43).

This second edition of the innovation index was prepared by Instead, a France-based business school, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The study is based on data collected on 90 variables, with half of them being objective data like internet subscribers and personal computers per 100 people. The rest were based on an executive survey undertaken for the World Economic Forum.