<div>India ranked 81st in the annual Global Innovation Index (GII) survey for 2015, published by Cornell University, INSEAD, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as a knowledge partner. The study ranked 141 economies across the world on their innovation capacity and efficiency.</div><div> </div><div>"The GII underlines the steady outperformance of India on innovation relative to its level of development. We applaud the new innovation policies put in place by the new Indian government, which are not yet effectively captured by the data used in the GII. Some of these measures have already had a positive impact on the build-up of innovation momentum and entrepreneurial mood in the country, and we expect this trend to grow in the coming months and years," said CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee.</div><div> </div><div>Banerjee further pointed out that relative fall in India's overall ranking this year is due to availability of old data up-to 2103-14 period, and it does not truly reflect the performance of the economy in last one year. With the present growth trend the future ranking for India is going to improve as the data get revised and as the government continues to perform towards a development oriented growth path.</div><div> </div><div>India continued its dismal performance on GII for the fifth consecutive year from 62nd rank in 2011, 64th in 2012, 66th in 2013 and 76 in 2014, even though the India chapter notes that the country has demonstrated strengths in factors such as gross capital formation, market capitalisation, and total value of stocks traded. </div><div> </div><div>India remains at the top of the regional ranking of Central and Southern Asia this year, followed by Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka, which has significantly improved its position.</div><div> </div><div>In terms of innovation quality, a few economies stand out. The US and the UK stay ahead of the pack, largely as a result of their world-class universities, closely followed by Japan, Germany and Switzerland. Top-scoring middle-income economies on innovation quality are China, Brazil and India, with China increasingly outpacing the others.</div><div> </div><div>"For the last one year or so India is witnessing a renewed enthusiasm towards developing effective policies to boost its innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, which has been weakly captured in this year's ranking," said CII's president designate Naushad Forbes. </div><div> </div><div>Singapore remained the only Asian nation in the top 10 of a major ranking of innovation worldwide, with Hong Kong just missing out in eleventh place.</div><div> </div><div>According to the study, India is also looking to boost the development of sectors such as infrastructure, transport, smart cities, manufacturing, and IT to supplement growth. </div><div> </div><div>Reforms in India’s credit delivery mechanism to its poor have been addressed by credit transfer schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana, which aims to increase disposable income for India’s poor. Given the unique challenges that India faces, achieving even 40 to 50 per cent of their targets by some of these initiatives will amount to an economic revolution. </div><div> </div><div>The momentum is building positively and the time is favourable for India to change gears and get its innovation journey onto the fast track, says the study.</div>
