NEW DELHI: India has consistently been climbing up its Global Innovation Index (GII) rankings since 2015, but the country still has to improve on many indicators to catch up with China and others in the list of 126 nations.The latest GII rankings, released in New York on Tuesday, put India at 57th position and China at 17th in 2018 as compared to their last year’s rankings of 60th and 22nd respectively, giving insight into their innovation capabilities and results.Switzerland retained its number-one spot in the GII ranking and figured with Netherlands , Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore , United States of America, Finland, Denmark , Germany and Ireland in the list of top 10 nations.The global ranking is published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) - a specialized agency of the United Nations - in association with Cornell University and graduate business school INSEAD . India’s Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is one of the knowledge partners which assists the GII team in bringing out the annual ranking.The GII ranks the nations based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to R&D, mobile application creation, online creativity, computer software spending, education spending, scientific & technical publications and ease of starting business.India maintains its top place in the central and south Asia region, consistently moving up on global ranking from 81st in 2015 to 57th this year. The country has, in fact, climbed up the list third year in a row. It ranked at 66th position in 2016 and 60th last year.“Given its size and innovation development, India has the potential to make a true difference to the global innovation landscape in the years to come. The Indian government and CII are working closely with the GII team to further improve the Indian innovation performance,” said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the CII.The GII report shows that India has been improving its ranking on the basis of certain indicators which are flagged as the country’s strength. It includes India’s human capital (graduates in science & engineering), growth rate of GDP per worker, exports of information and communication technology (ICT) and services, productivity growth and creative goods exports among others.India has, in fact, outperformed on innovation relative to its GDP per capita for eight years in a row. The country, however, fared badly on other indicators including political stability & safety, ease of starting business, overall education and environmental performance which are described as its weakness.“Over time, a number of emerging economies stand out for being real movers and shakers in the innovation landscape,” said Soumitra Dutta, former dean and professor of management at Cornell University, while noting rise of China and India on this front.Published annually since 2007, the GII is considered a leading benchmarking tool for business executives, policy makers and others seeking insight into the state of innovation around the world. It’s being used by them to evaluate progress on a continual basis.