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Karnataka tops Niti Aayog's innovation index for the second time

Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu secured the second and the third position
Last Updated 20 January 2021, 14:08 IST

Karnataka topped Niti Aayog's Innovation Index for the second year in a row second on Wednesday. It was among four southern states along with Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala to occupy the top five spots under the "Major States" category this year.

Maharashtra, was the fifth in the India Innovation Index 2020 that seeks to rank states and Union Territories based on their relative performance of supporting innovation, and to empower them to improve their innovation policies by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

The index attributed this a number of venture capital deals, registered GIs (Geographical Indications) and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) exports. Karnataka's high FDI inflow has also enhanced the innovation capabilities of the state.

Last year, while Tamil Nadu was second and Maharashtra third, they exchanged their positions this year.

The index, released by Aayog's vice chairman Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant, has been developed in the lines of Global Innovation Index.

It has revealed that while the average innovation score is 25.35 among the major states, Karnataka scores almost 17 points above that and tops at 42.5.

The data clearly brought out the difference in the innovation status between the southern states with others like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar, which were ranked at the bottom of the index.

The difference between the score of Karnataka and Nitish Kumar-ruled Bihar in the Index scroe was three fold with the latter finishing the last at 14.48. Chhattisgarh scored 15.77 while Jharkhand 17.12.

Karnataka had ranked top even when the first edition of the index was released in October 2019.

Among Northern states, Haryana topped scoring 25.81 at the sixth position in the national index while poll-bound West Bengal was at the 11th position scoring 21.69.

While Karnataka is ruled by the BJP and Tamil Nadu by AIADMK, the other three southern states are ruled by the Opposition parties respectively Maharashtra by Mahav Vikas Aghadi (alliance of Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP), TRS and Left respectively.

The index aims to rank states and UTs based on their scores, recognize opportunities and challenges, and assist in tailoring government policies to foster innovation.

It also showed that while the figure of students enrolled in engineering and technology programmes are high in southern states, it is abysmally low in North-Eastern states, which, though perform better in PhD enrolment rates.
Aayog on Wednesday lauded the landmark transformation of the government school system in Delhi, as government-aided schools helped the national capital achieve the highest National Achievement Survey (NAS) score. Among Union Territories Delhi topped the chart, while in the North-Eastern and Hill States category Himachal Pradesh occupied the top spot.

Speaking at the virtual event, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the office of Principal Scientific Advisor and Niti Aayog are working closely to create a seamless interaction among institutions to improve India's innovation ecosystem.

The innovation inputs were measured through five enabler parameters, and the output through two performance parameters. While ‘Human Capital’, ‘Investment’, ‘Knowledge Workers’, ‘Business Environment’, ‘Safety and Legal Environment' were identified as enabler parameters, ‘Knowledge Output’ and ‘Knowledge Diffusion' were chosen as the performance parameters.

Government has been citing the release of the Innovation Index as a sign of its continued commitment towards transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.

India Innovation Index 2020 builds on the previous year’s methodology by introducing more metrics and providing a holistic outlook of the Indian innovation ecosystem. The framework has been updated to include globally considered parameters for measuring innovation.

The index captures the trends and provides detailed analyses of the various factors that drive innovation at the country, state, and district levels. It is believed that these analyses would enable policymakers in identifying catalysts and inhibitors of innovation at the national and sub-national levels.

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(Published 20 January 2021, 06:45 IST)

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