Reinvention of Innovation

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 Reinvention of Innovation

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• India makes it to the GII top 50: The Global Innovation Index (GII) has ranked India 48. India has jumped 33 places since 2015. It’s a leader in Central and South Asia and third in the lower middle-income group of economies. It is progressing swiftly on the index. 
• GII: The GII ranks 130 economies on 80 indicators under 5 categories—institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication. Innovation output subindex includes two innovation measures—knowledge and technology output and creative output. Switzerland, Sweden, US, Britain, the Netherlands are the leaders this year. 
• India’s major innovation initiatives over six years: Some of the initiatives are National biometric unique identity (UID), availability and affordability of feature-rich mobile phones, expansion of optic fibre networks and related infrastructure to over two lakh gram panchayats, widespread access to GoI’s online citizen, expansion in direct benefit transfers (DBT) to actual beneficiaries through 450 schemes, and more.
• Other accomplishments: Knowledge-based export services worth $190 billion-plus reflects India’s entrepreneurial and human capital. India ranks 12th in the number of science and engineering graduates globally and 16th in global ranking of R&D-intensive companies. India hosts 164 of the world’s top 5000 brands and hence scores well on the ‘Global Brand Value’ indicator of GII.
• Research and Development: 

1. India has increased its R&D investment expanding applied research and innovation at institutions such as Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), etc. Tech garage is a series of public-private partnerships in tech applications for large-scale solutions.
2. India is a net exporter of R&D.
3. Knowledge and technology outputs and market sophistication indicators suggest that India produces high-quality outcomes in return for innovation investment.
4. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) satellite launches, research in pharmaceuticals, biotech and bioinformatics are a few more areas where India has shown exemplary growth. 

• Innovation and entrepreneurship: Key initiatives include 

1. Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission to encourage entrepreneurship in schools and universities
2. Atal Research and Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE) in partnership with five GoI ministries to promote innovations by micro and small enterprises (MSEs). Under this initiative MSEs will receive support from government departments to ensure they can scale up on the basis of product innovation. Changes in procurement policies to provide this support are also underway. 

• Two drivers for improving innovation activity:

1. India must increase its R&D investment (0.85% of GDP), which is far lower than top five R&D leaders globally. 
2. Fast and reliable information and communication technology (ICT) in remote areas will also fuel innovation.

• Next goal: Joining the top 20 club in GII ranking should be India’s medium-term goal. 

1. National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is commendable in its vision. Its impactful implementation will help India become an innovation leader.
2. Collaboration across start-ups, corporates, public science and technology systems, and higher education institutions is essential. 

• Summary: India has made significant progress on various innovation parameters. It now needs to do more. It has reached the top 50 in global innovation index and should aim to feature among the top 20 in the next five years. Increasing R&D investment, enhancing ICT reach, and implementing NEP 2020 successfully will be instrumental. 

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