New Delhi: The government will set up a dedicated group to identify, and expeditiously implement, measures to improve India’s innovation ranking, commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

Speaking at the launch of the Global Innovation Index (GII) Report 2016, which shows India jumping 15 spots to a rank of 66 (from 81 in 2015) after five consecutive years of decline, Sitharaman said: “We need to look at the report in depth and identify the challenges and make sure we solve the issues which have been shown as our weaknesses. The group will advise the government as to the direction we have to move in."

She said the body will consist of industry experts and representatives from the government. The details of the committee will be notified later, she added.

India has a particularly low ranking in business environment (117), which includes ease of starting a business (114), ease of resolving insolvency (110) and ease of paying taxes (109).

The report released jointly by Cornell University, INSEAD, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), A.T. Kearney and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) showed Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, the US, Finland and Singapore lead the 2016 GII rankings.

This year, China joined the world’s 25 most-innovative economies, becoming the first middle-income country to enter the top 25 of the index in its nine editions of surveying the innovative capacity of over 100 economies.

India scored high in tertiary education and research and development, the quality of its universities and scientific publications, its market sophistication and information and communication technology service exports, where it ranks first in the world, according to the index.

WIPO director general Francis Gurry said in GII, India performs better than other countries at a similar level of economic development.

“India also shows outstanding strengths in innovation factors such as the number of graduates in science and engineering, the quality of its scientific publications and the quality of its universities," he added.

The index said that India has all the ingredients needed to become a global driver of innovation, including strong market potential, an excellent talent pool, and an underlying culture of frugal innovation. India ranks second on innovation quality among middle-income economies, overtaking Brazil.

“Relative weaknesses exist in the indicators for business environment, education expenditure, new business creation and creative goods and services production," it said.

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