India 66th on Global Innovation Index 2013

The Global Innovation Index, released today, saw India ranked 66th this year - 2 ranks lower than their 2012 rank and 4 lower than its 2011 rank. The index, available here, is prepared by WIPO, Cornell and INSEAD with Knowledge Partners, Booz & Company, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), du and Huawei. 

As per their Press Release:

"Despite the economic crisis, innovation is alive and well. Research and development spending levels are surpassing 2008 levels in most countries and successful local hubs are thriving. A group of dynamic middle- and low-income countries – including China, Costa Rica, India, and Senegal - are outpacing their peers, but haven’t broken into the top of the GII 2013 leader board. This year’s report casts additional light on the local dynamics of innovation, an area which has remained under-measured globally. It shows the emergence of original innovation eco-systems, and signals a needed shift from a usual tendency to try and duplicate previously successful initiatives."

Switzerland and Sweden maintained rank 1 and 2 respectively while UK, Netherlands and USA took up the next 3 spots. 

While India ranked 66th out of the 142 countries, it ranked 3rd amongst Lower Middle Income countries, 1st amongst Central and Southern Asia, and 11th in overall efficiency rating. The two positions dropped in the overall rankings occurred due to Mexico making a leap of 16 spots to rank 63, and the introduction of Barbados which entered in at 47th rank. According to the report, (on page 31):

"In fact, India performs remarkably well in six out of seven key indicators introduced for the first time this year: the cit- able documents H index (23rd), the QS university ranking average score of top 3 universities (27th), high- tech and medium-high-tech output (31st), GERD performed by business enterprise over GDP (42nd), logis- tics performance (46th), and pat- ent families filed in at least three offices (59th), with a single weak- ness in royalties and license fees receipts over services exports, where it is ranked 83rd. India has relative strength in the Output Sub-Index (ranked 42nd, down from 40th in all countries worldwide this year is 12.8%, it reaches a peak of 22.0% in Sub-Saharan Africa.1 Because no imputation of missing data is performed, the reliability of rankings is affected, as shown by the statistical audit performed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, which provides a 90% confidence interval for the GII, Input, and Output rankings. For the past three years, all countries with indicator coverage 2012, and 1st in the region) over the Input Sub-Index (ranked 87th, up from 96th in 2012). This led to a fall in the efficiency ratio (to 11th this year, down from 2nd in 2012). Weak positions in Institutions (102nd) and Human capital and research (105th) remain, although rankings improved compared to 2012 (125th and 131st, respectively). The ranking in pillar 6, Knowledge and technology out- puts, also improved (from 47th to 37th), with a 1st place in communi- cations, computer and information services exports over total services exports providing the leverage for a 22nd world place in Knowledge diffusion." 

For the charts and details referred to, see the full report here. For an infogram that you can quickly glance over, see here.