All about Global Innovation Index 2021

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)’s Global Innovation Index helps us understand how we can stimulate innovation by using a mix of measurements to calculate the economy’s innovative capacity and output. 

From research and development investment, education expenditure, and patent filing rates to feature films and mobile app production, the Global Innovation Index uses more than 80 indicators of innovation to rank over 130 economies across the globe. It promotes human ingenuity to build a better and more sustainable future.

What is innovation?

The term “innovation” has been extracted from the Latin term “innovare” which implies “to renew”. Innovation is a process by which a good or a service is replenished and made new by putting in new procedures, framing new ones, or creating new ideas to generate value. 

Innovation is somewhat associated with invention. Innovation entails the practical application of an invention (or a discovery) to make a meaningful impression in society. One thing to be kept in mind is that not every innovation needs a new invention.

What is the Global Innovation Index?

• Global Innovation Index (GII) is an index laying down a detailed benchmark on the innovation performance of over 130 countries’s economies all over the world. This index consists of 81 indicators which determines a broad vision of innovation. 
• The Global Innovation Index report is published by WIPO in partnership with the Portulans Institute, with the support of corporate network partners, such as the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry, the Ecopetrol Group (Colombia), and the Turkish Exporters Assembly. 
• The Global Innovation Index (GII) has established itself as a policy tool for the governments of several countries and helped them to reflect upon the existing status quo over a period of time.
• The Global Innovation Index is the focal point for the governing authorities of such countries to evaluate the social as well as economic variations in their countries. 
• The consistent advancement in the Global Innovation Index ranking is due to the extensive knowledge & human capital, the start-up environment, and the outstanding performance shown by the public as well as private R&D organisations. 

Global Innovation Index 2021 

• • What is in the Global Innovation Index 2021 report as always you will find the innovation ranking of the world’s economy. A new element has been added to the Global Innovation Index 2021 report which is the “Global Innovation Tracker”. 
  • This new segment of the Global Innovation Index 2021 provides a perspective on global innovation performance relying on several key indicators. For WIPO, GII has become a prominent part of their dialogue with member states. It certainly contributes to the sector’s efforts to promote private innovation systems that drive economic growth.

• Global Innovation Index 2021 theme:- “Tracking innovation through the covid-19 crisis” is the Global Innovation Index 2021 theme.

• India’s Ranking:- The rank of India in the Global Innovation Index 2021 is Forty-Sixth (46th) among the 132 countries.

• Most Innovative Countries:- The top ten countries as per the Global Innovation Index 2021 are as follows:-

India Innovation Index

• India Innovation Index Report is released by NITI Aayog with the Institute for Competitiveness. The index has been developed along the lines of the Global Innovation Index (GII), to ameliorate the ecosystem of states and Union Territories of India in terms of innovation. It also helps in formulating policies to stimulate innovation across India. 
• It goes beyond traditional approaches by considering the best parameters in measuring innovation such as patents per million population, publication in scientific journals, and percentage of GDP spending on research. 
• It also establishes some parameters that are specific to the environment of the Indian economy (For instance, Demographic dividend).
• The India Innovation Index launched by the NITI (Nation Institute for Transforming India) Aayog is widely recognised as a reforming decision towards decentralisation of innovation across all Indian states.
• It is focusing on boosting the national efforts for inducing policy-led innovation in different areas or fields such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, space, etc.
• Indicators Used:- The indicators that the survey uses include the level and quality of education and parameters such as: 

1. Number of Ph.D. students and knowledge-intensive employment
2. Enrolment in engineering and technology and a number of highly skilled professionals 
3. Investment in R&D and number of patents and trademark applications filed 
4. Internet subscribers 
5. FDI inflows, business environment and safety & legal environment.

Conclusion

The Global Innovation Index is an important measure of innovation among the 132 countries taken by the index in its account. India has climbed 2 places to 46th as the rank of India in Global Innovation Index 2021. We have also discussed the India Innovation Index which has been framed by NITI Aayog in line with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)’s Global Innovation Index.