Global Innovation Index 2015: Looking at India’s performance

The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2015, released yesterday, saw India ranked a disappointing 81 out of the 141 countries surveyed. Topping the list for the 5th year running is Switzerland, followed by UK and Sweden.

View full infographic here

The GII, currently in its 8th edition, is an annual report co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Using 79 indicators from over 30 international sources, and with a transparent and replicable computation methodology, it is widely recognized as the leading measure of the innovation power of economies around the world. This year’s report has been themed “Effective Innovation for Development”.

India, receiving a score of 31.74 (out of 100) ranked 81st of the 141 countries surveyed, 8th amongst 34 Lower-Middle Income Countries, 1st from the 11 Central and South Asian region countries, and 31st out of 141 countries in terms of efficiency ratio.

While India’s continually dropping rank ought to raise some cause for worry, it is interesting to note that the Report refers to India as an “Innovation Achiever”  a term they use to describe economies that are performing at least 10% better than their peers for their level of GDP. India also is ranked 3rd for “Innovation Quality” amongst Middle Income Countries, behind China and Brazil.

While I haven’t yet looked at the Report in depth, it promises to be an interesting study. Those interested in viewing the full report can see it here: PDF. There is also a shorter infographic here for those interested: PDF.

I’ve only taken a cursory glance at the report but I found it interesting to see that there isn’t much emphasis on IPRs through the report. Readers who’ve had a chance to look at it in more depth, please feel free to chip in on what they think of the Report, its indicators and its methodology!

View our posts on the previous GII reports: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.