United Nations: India slightly improved its rank in an index of the world’s most innovative economies, maintaining its position as the top exporter of IT services but still lagging in parameters of ease of starting a business, political stability and safety, and female employees with advanced degrees in the workforce.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings, published annually by Corn-ell University, INSEAD and the UN World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and GII Kno-wledge Partners, ranked India at the 57th spot this year, a slight improvement from the 60th position in 2017.
India maintained its top place in the Central and South Asia. However, it is noteworthy that while India is the top exporter of IT services, the use and access of information and communication technologies within the country is poor. India ranked 105th on IT access and 110th on IT use.
Among lower middle-income economies, India moved up to the fifth position in the GII rankings. It has also outperformed on innovation relative to its GDP per capita for eight years in a row.
India ranks well on a number of important indicators — productivity growth and exports of ICT and services.
Now in its 11th edition, the GII ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.
India performed well on a number of parameters but showed weakness in some categories. The country was the top exporter of IT services for the second consecutive year.
The other areas of strength for India include the number of its science and engineering graduates, an area in which it ranked sixth overall. It ranked fourth on ease of protecting minority investors, 16th on trade, competition and market scale and within this section, third on domestic market scale measured in purchasing power parity, 18th on the global R&D companies indicator, 20th on gross capital formation and 35th overall in investment.
