“India, Innovative? India’s 15 – place jump in a new Global Innovation
index has to be taken with a pinch of salt.” Economic Times, dated 25th
August 2016
Should this headline make Indians feel excited or make them
wary of the fact that despite this positive jump, our innovations are still not
world class? Let’s look into this story.
What is the Global
Innovation Index?
The Global Innovation Index (or the GII) was launched in
2007 by Cornell University, INSEAD. It is published annually by INSEAD &
World Intellectual Property Organisation, and does an annual ranking of
countries by their capacity for success in innovation. The theme for 2016 is
“Winning with Global Innovation” and is in its 9th edition. GII
parameters & methodologies are tweaked continuously and hence could be one
of the reasons why countries’ rankings keep changing.
However, countries that
are constantly investing in innovative research & development tend to
retain their rankings. Switzerland has been ranked as number 1 for the past 6
successive years. Followed by Sweden, United Kingdom, USA & Finland, these
countries wrap up the top 5 ranks. India is one of the countries with
fluctuating positions, which is a reflection of constant changes the country is
going through.
India’s story around
Innovation
“There has been a significant broadening of the innovation
ecosystem in recent years in India’”, says Nandan Nilekani, former Infosys
co-founder. What is this ecosystem Mr. Nilekani is referring to?
The ecosystem comprises educational institutions, research
output, patents, entrepreneurship, venture capital, government policies, etc.
All of these contribute immensely to creation of new & innovative goods
& services that enable better customer experiences, cost reductions, growth
& development on the economy. Innovations needn’t always be radical like
say an ATM; sometimes incremental ones too add value like say a solar powered
ATM. Improvements in all the above mentioned areas are captured in GII
sub-indices.
India is currently ranked at 66, a significant jump from
last year’s 81. Prior to this in 2008-09 India was at its best at 41 and since
then has been tumbling down. The upward movement is a big feather in our cap
and we need to make efforts to keep up with the good, or should I say
innovative, work. There have been over the past year significant positive
achievements in human capital, research, market & business sophistication.
Campus startups and incubators being funded by companies across diverse
institutions have propelled the startup culture especially in the IT sector.
This implies that India’s educational system has improved in the eyes of the
global peers, even though our overall ranking in education field is 118.
Things are way better for India in R&D compared with
previous years, as the country has been investing consistently in R&D. A
major contributing factor to this has been the presence of top multinational
R&D centres that have set up shop all across the country. Numbering close
to 1000, these R&D centers have made India an innovation powerhouse.
What should we be
wary of?
The GII report highlights some glaring inadequacies too in
India. Our biggest drawback is the
absence of elite & world class universities that can add to India’s
innovation capability. Investments need to increase significantly in education
across the board be it primary, secondary or vocational. India has its IITs and
of course the Indian Institute of Science (which incidentally comes in top 150
universities in the QS university ranking system) which are facilitating
innovation, but scientific innovations are few & far in number, with maximum
R&Ds focusing towards making existing products more affordable to the common
man.
New initiatives by Government of India could lead to some
improvements in the education sector and soon we may see ‘Innovation’ become
embedded in the basic fabric of our society. Let’s wait for the day when India
breaks into top 10 most innovative countries in the world and hope that it
isn’t too far!
- Ms. Monica Mor, Sr. Faculty, INLEAD
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