Karnataka has topped the first-ever innovation ranking of states, followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, a Niti Aayog sponsored report said on October 17. Telangana, Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh were among the other states that topped the innovation index. Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, on the other hand, trailed on the list. 

The report was released by Niti Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and chief executive officer Amitabh Kant in New Delhi. 

Kumar said innovation has always been a driver of change and progress in any economy as it disrupts traditional practices and businesses. “The first ever India Innovation Index will help create a conducive ecosystem for innovation to flourish across the country. Such an index will not only help to devise their own strategy for fostering an innovation climate, it will also enable them to benchmark their performance with other states,” Kumar pointed out.

What is the purpose of the index?

For a country as large as India, the state of innovation needs to be understood at the regional level for effective policy formulation. A policy just at the national level is not enough. Each state needs to formulate its own policy, based on its unique resources and strengths and which caters to the specific needs.

Recognizing the role of innovation as a key driver of growth and prosperity for India, NITI Aayog with Institute for Competitiveness as the knowledge partner has released the India Innovation Index 2019. 

The index, developed on the lines of Global Innovation Index (GII), looks into the innovation ecosystem of Indian states and Union Territories to help policymakers design policies to drive innovation across regions.

The index attempts to create an extensive framework for the continual evaluation of the innovation environment of 29 states and seven Union Territories in India and intends to perform the following three functions — 1) ranking of states and UTs based on their index scores, 2) recognizing opportunities and challenges, and 3) assisting in tailoring governmental policies to foster innovation.

The ranking was done in three categories — ‘major states’, ‘northeast and hill states’ and ‘Union territories (UTs)/city and small states’. Sikkim topped in the northeast category, while Delhi was at the top in the UT segment.

The report, which has captured trends and done deep-drive analyses of various factors that drive innovation at the country, state and pillar levels, envisages to help policymakers and corporates identify some of the issues at a sustainable level in India.

The index has been grouped under two major heads, enablers — factors that will drive innovation in states and UTs, and performance — that will measure the actual outcomes in the innovation competitiveness of states.

Karnataka best investment destination 

In terms of attracting investment, the top position was again bagged by Karnataka among major states, followed by Maharashtra, Haryana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Karnataka’s number one position in the overall ranking is partly attributed to its top rank in the performance dimension. It is also among the top performers in infrastructure, knowledge workers, knowledge output and business environment.

Bihar, Jharkhand and Punjab were the least attractive states for investment.

Among northeast and hill states, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three states. Among the UTs, Lakshadweep, Delhi and Goa were the top three regions.

The way ahead

The broad level learnings and some policy imperatives at the national level include increasing the spending on research and development, improving the capability of top rung educational institutions in the country to produce greater innovation outputs, the report said. 

There is also a need for greater coordination and collaboration between the industry and educational institutions for enhancing innovation capability. 

A collaborative platform consisting of all the stakeholders of innovation —  innovators, researchers, and investors from the industry should be developed. This will help in strengthening the industry-academia linkages and will ease the process of technology transfer by providing a platform for innovators to showcase their inventions.

At the state level, broad level key learning includes forming policies that seek to improve the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Cluster development programs are also an area in need of greater coordination and can benefit from a more open collaborative approach. 

Also, the industrial policies at the state level should focus more on innovation. At present only a few policies exist for innovation even in the most innovative states and Union Territories.