India climbed five notches on the Global Innovation Index (GII) this year to the 52nd position, from 57th last year, amongst 129 countries ranked on the basis of more than 80 indicators measuring various aspects of innovation.

“In the last five years India's ranking increased from 81 to 52," said Naresh Prasad, Assistant Director General, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), at the global launch of the GII 2019 in New Delhi on Wednesday.

This is the first time that the GII has been launched in Asia or in an emerging economy.

The event in New Delhi was co-organised by the Commerce Ministry, WIPO and industry body CII.

Switzerland continued to be on top of the index, while Israel made its way into the top ten in the list.

India’s progress

“India's consistent improvement in ranking since 2015 is largely a result of our focus on improving innovation system in the country. We are very pleased with the improvement we have made, but we have a long way to go. We will keep improving,” said Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that while India was still a couple of ranks shorter than what it has been aiming at (rank of 50 or below), he was happy that progress was being made.

“The culture of innovation is taking centre stage in the country. India is well poised to focus on R&D. This innovation will help us find sustainable solutions to challenges such as growing pollution, food crisis and water crisis,” said Piyush Goyal, speaking at the launch of the report.

Abhishek pointed out that India has made a number of changes in its IPR regime to increase efficiency and that the nation had cut down the time required to issue patents.

The GII has been jointly developed by Cornell University, Paris-based business school Insead and WIPO, and includes more than 80 indicators exploring a broad vision of innovation, including political environment, education, infrastructure and business sophistication.