India ranks 36 out of 170 nations on readiness for frontier technologies global index

United Nations: India ranks 36th out of 170 nations on a global index measuring a country’s readiness for frontier technologies, improving its ranking from last year, according to a UN report.

The 2025 Technology and Innovation Report, issued by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), stated that India ranked 36th in 2024 on the ‘Readiness for Frontier Technologies’ index, improving its position from 48th in 2022.

The index combines indicators for ICT deployment, skills, research and development (R&D) activity, industrial capacity, and access to finance.

India ranks 99th for ICT, 113th for skills, 3rd for R&D, 10th for industrial capacity, and 70th for finance. Bhutan, India, Morocco, the Republic of Moldova, and Timor-Leste improved their positions in human capital due to more years of schooling and a greater share of high-skill employment in their working populations, the report said.

The report further noted that Brazil, China, India, and the Philippines are developing countries outperforming in technology readiness.

“It might be expected that countries with higher per capita GDP are better prepared for frontier technologies. Overall, this is true but… some countries perform far better than their levels of income may suggest, as indicated by their distance from the regression line of the index score on GDP per capita,” it said.

Developing countries need to prepare themselves for a world that is rapidly being reshaped by AI and other frontier technologies. A useful measure in assessing national preparedness to use, adopt, and adapt frontier technologies is the UNCTAD Frontier Technologies Readiness Index.

“Developed countries lead the ranking, but some developing countries, notably Singapore, China, and India, hold prominent positions.” The report also notes that China, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States show scientific strength in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The United States leads the world in terms of private investment in AI, at $67 billion in 2023, or 70 per cent of global AI private investment. The only developing countries with significant investments were China in second position, with $7.8 billion, and India in tenth position, with $1.4 billion.

The report noted that AI is expected to reach $4.8 trillion in market value by 2033, becoming a prominent force in digital transformation.

However, access to AI infrastructure and expertise remains concentrated in a few economies. Just 100 firms, mainly in the US and China, account for 40 per cent of global corporate R&D spending. AI could impact 40 per cent of jobs worldwide, offering productivity gains but also raising concerns about automation and job displacement.

The benefits of AI-driven automation often favour capital over labour, which could widen inequality and reduce the competitive advantage of low-cost labour in developing economies.

However, AI is not just about replacing jobs – it can also create new industries and empower workers. Investing in reskilling, upskilling, and workforce adaptation is essential to ensure AI enhances employment opportunities rather than eliminating them, the report said.

The report stated that with regard to the top 10 economies in terms of cloud infrastructure services from major providers, China and the United States have more services than the rest of the world combined; India and Brazil are two developing countries on the list, along with Singapore.

The United States has the most GitHub developers, followed by India and China.

“China and India have the world’s largest populations and, despite relatively low shares, can leverage a significant mass of AI developers, which puts them in favourable positions with respect to AI development and the production of AI-related scientific knowledge,” it said.

The report noted that there are large talent pools in India, with around 13 million developers, and in Brazil, with 4 million. “These two countries are also among the leading countries in creating GenAI projects on GitHub, and are significant contributors to advances in AI.

“The lead of India partly reflects government policy. The Government has closely collaborated over the years with the private sector and academia to build centres of excellence,” such as the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in AI, the Kotak Indian Institute of Science Artificial Intelligence–Machine Learning Centre, and the National Association of Software and Service Companies Centre of Excellence in Data Science and AI, the report said.

In 2024, the Cabinet approved the India AI Mission to strengthen the AI innovation ecosystem, aimed at, for example, reducing barriers to entry into AI programmes and increasing the number of AI courses in tertiary education, focusing on small and medium-sized cities, the report said, citing the Competition Commission.

“China, Brazil, and India have produced a large pool of AI developers. These illustrate different catch-up trajectories and highlight the importance of policy efforts in order to enhance preparedness in light of the rapid evolution of AI,” the report said.

The report notes that different countries often specialise in particular fields. This is evident in the revealed technology advantage of a country, which is defined as its share of patents in a particular technology field divided by its share in all fields. Germany is highly specialised in wind energy, India in nanotechnology, Japan in electric vehicles, and the Republic of Korea in 5G technology.

It further said that manufacturing plays a key role in economic development, stimulating growth in different upstream and downstream sectors and generating significant employment opportunities.

“Examples from developing countries such as Brazil, China, and India show how industrialisation can reduce poverty and accelerate economic growth,” it said