India is ranked 46th in the Global Innovation Index 2021 by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

It has gained two spots after breaking into the top 50 countries last year.

“... besides China, only Turkey, Vietnam, India and the Philippines are systematically catching up. All four Asian economies have romped up the ranks by an average of 22 positions in the past decade..,” the GII 2021 report said.

Switzerland, Sweden, the US and the UK have retained their top four ranks in the index while China is ranked 12th.

India’s position

India takes the second place in the lower middle-income group. It has also been portrayed as successful in developing sophisticated services that are technologically dynamic and can be traded internationally, according to the report.

“It continues to lead the world in the ICT services exports indicator and holds top ranks in other indicators, such as domestic industry diversification (12th) and graduates in science and engineering (12th),” the report added.

India, Kenya, the Republic of Moldova and Vietnam are still record holders for being innovation achievers for 11 consecutive years, according to the report. India’s innovation performance is above average for the upper middle-income group in five of the seven innovation pillars. However, it scores below average in the pillars of infrastructure and creative outputs.

India’s performance in the area of science and technology (S&T) is also encouraging. The top 100 S&T clusters are hosted by 26 economies, of which six – Brazil, China, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and the Russian Federation – are middle-income economies, the report pointed out.

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