India overperforms in innovation 13th year in a row: WIPO

India has over performed on the innovation parameter in World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)'s annual Global Innovation Index (GII) for the 13th consecutive year. The country has maintained the 40th position in the overall global innovation ranking while holding top rankings in key indicators including ICT services exports (5th rank), flow of venture capital (6), graduates in science and engineering (11) and global corporate R&D investors (13) in the just released GII 2023 ranking. India maintains the leading position in overall ranking among the lower middle-income country group too, a WIPO statement says.

The GII 2023 uses 80 indicators to track global innovation trends and ranks 132 countries on the basis of their innovation capabilities. Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore are the world's most innovative economies in 2023. "India has been consistently enhancing its innovation performance, and fostering continued improvement in its knowledge inputs and outputs. A founding knowledge partner of the GII, the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) is proud to be an integral part of India's Inspiring journey toward becoming an innovation driven knowledge economy," Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII said. 

Other parameters where India performed fairly better include cultural and creative services exports as percentage of trade (18th rank), intangible asset intensity (8th rank), and overall market sophistication (20th rank). The broad areas where a lot of improvement needs to happen are infrastructure (84th rank), business sophistication (57) and institutions (56). 

"A group of emerging economies are consistently climbing the GII ranks, showing how a focus on the innovation ecosystem can make a difference. Globally, despite a downturn in venture capital funding, the GII 2023 should reassure us that innovative activity currently continues to run strong but that innovative activity should continue to shift from quantity to quality," Daren Tang, Director General, WIPO, said.  

Of the 21 economies that outperformed on innovation relative to their level of development, the majority are located in Sub-SaharanAfrica and SouthEast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania. Along with India, the Republic of Moldova and VietNam have also been innovation overperformers for 13 years in a row. Indonesia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan maintain their overperformer status for a second year and Brazil for a third consecutive year.