India slips 10 places in Global Innovation Index

India's slide as an innovation hub continues, with the country dropping off to 76th position, a slip of 10 places from last year, in the annual Global Innovation Index (GII) survey for 2014.

The annual rankings are jointly published by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organisation. It surveys 143 economies around the world, using 81 indicators to gauge innovation capabilities and results.

Interestingly, India is the worst performer among BRICS nations, with all the others improving their positions from that of the last year. China was the best among BRICS nations at 29th position, an improvement of six places. Russia went up 13 places at 49th rank. South Africa ranked 53rd, went up five places, while Brazil at 61st position, moved up three places.

India continued its dismal performance on GII for the fourth consecutive year from 62nd rank in 2011, 64th in 2012, and 66th in 2013, even though the India chapter notes that year-on-year comparisons are influenced by modelling and other changes.

Singapore (7th), Hong Kong(10th) and South Korea (16th ) are the only Asian economies in the top 20 in this year's Global Innovation Index, headed by Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, the United States, among others.

The India Chapter notes that the country scores with quality of its universities, IT services exports, and export of creative goods, but these are outweighed by weaknesses in its institutional pillars such as political stability, ease of starting a business, as well as human capital and research.

In fact, earlier this year in World Bank's "Doing Business Report" for 2014, India slipped three notches to 134th spot in a survey among 189 countries.

The Narendra Modi-government has initiated steps such as single-window clearances, stress on self-certification by industry and ease labour laws, among others, in a bid to improve the environment for doing business in the country.