Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, PiyushGoyal, launched the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019 in New Delhi. India jumped five places to improve its position from 57th last year to 52nd in 2019.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2019 ranks and analises the innovation performance of 129 countries. GII 2019 ranks Switzerland as the world’s most innovative country followed by Sweden, the United States of America (U.S.) with Netherlands and the United Kingdom (U.K.) occupiying the forth and fifth places respectively. South Korea is at the 11th spot whereas China is placed at the 14th spot one spot ahead of Japan.
The GII rankings are published every year by Cornell University, INSEAD and the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and GII Knowledge Partners. This is the 12th edition of the GII rankings of 129 economies based on 80 indicators ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.
Speaking on this occasion Commerce and Industry Minister first congratulated all those involved in the process and said that India has made a significant progress to 52nd rank in the GII-2019 and now the culture of innovation is coming to the centre-stage. He said that India will continue its efforts to reach upwards of top 50 ranks in the GII that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set as a goal. He further said that India will not rest on past laurels until it achieves its target of positioning itself among the top 25 countries of the Global Innovation Index. To achieve this ranking he urged all stakeholders to work in mission mode.
Piyush Goyal urged the R&D institutions, universities and private sector to transform the country into a hub of innovation. The Commerce and Industry Ministry requested the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to factor in India’s rural innovation as part of the innovation index in future.
Commerce and Industry Minister in his address said that the improvement in the rankings should inspire Indians to help marginalized and under privileged section of society and R&D must provide sustainable solutions to the problems that India is facing at present like rising pollution levels in cities, water crises faced in different parts of the country, depleting natural resources, issues of climate change and solving problems of food wastage. All these problems that the country is facing should be solved through innovative ideas. The Commerce and Industry Minister further added that India must be a responsive country and work in mission mode by engaging with academia, private sector and government agencies to improve the quality of citizens’ lives even in the remotest parts of the country.
