India Hosts Global Innovation Index Event

August 8, 2018

WIPO, in collaboration with India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), organized on August 8, 2018, an event on India’s innovation drive, based on the country’s climb in the recent Global Innovation Index (GII).

The event (program ) “India: Marching Towards Innovation-Driven Economy”, brought together over 100 participants from Government and the private sector to discuss the particular role of India in global innovation.

A special address by WIPO Assistant Director General Naresh Prasad said the GII has become the premier reference for measuring a country’s innovation performance, evolving into a valuable benchmarking tool that can facilitate public-private dialogue and through which policy makers, business leaders, and other stakeholders can evaluate progress on a continual basis.

WIPO Assistant Director General Naresh Prasad (second from left) speaks at India GII event, along with Mr. Ratan P. Watal (center), Principal Adviser, NITI Aayog & Member Secretary Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister, Mr. Arvind Thakur (first from left), Co- Chair, CII National Committee on Intellectual Property & Vice Chairman and Managing Director, NIIT Technologies, Dr. Anil Kakodkar (second from right), Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Mr. B N Satpathy, Senior Consultant, EAC-PM, NITI Aayog, Government of India (photo: Courtesy of Confederation of Indian Industry).

Mr. Prasad lauded India’s innovation efforts, saying the Government is committed to creating strong innovation ecosystems. He noted that India’s innovation future is bright as it has some of the most innovative people in the world. In his special address, Mr. Prasad highlighted the rise of India as an emerging innovation center in Asia which has consistently outperformed on innovation relative to its GDP per capita for years. He observed that if India increasingly connects its innovation system to the innovative countries in the East, as well as to standing innovation powerhouses in the West, it will make a true difference in Asia’s regional role in innovation and to global innovation more generally.

The high-level segment was also addressed by Mr. Ratan P. Watal, Principal Adviser, NITI Aayog & Member Secretary Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister, who told participants that the GII contributed in important ways to monitor and shape Indian innovation policy, including the availability of fitting and timely innovation metrics. Other speakers included Mr. Arvind Thakur, Co- Chair, CII National Committee on Intellectual Property & Vice Chairman and Managing Director, NIIT Technologies and Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission.

WIPO economist Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, who is also Co-Editor of the GII, presented the results of the 2018 edition of the GII. He highlighted India’s performance in the GII, having moved up in many of the GII’s performance variables. Mr. Wunsch-Vincent underlined India’s consistent top positions in variables such as ICT services exports and progress in labor productivity – now ranked 4rth in the world. India also features in the novel 2018 GII ranking on the world’s top science and technology clusters with positions for Bangalore and New Delhi among the top 100 such clusters worldwide.

Mr. Wunsch-Vincent also stressed that India’s use of the GII has been an example for other countries to follow. Under the leadership of the Minister of Commerce and Industry, and of NITI, with its newly created Atal Innovation Mission, India created a cross-ministerial task force to assess Indian innovation performance and the related metrics. These efforts garnered attention at the highest government levels, including the Prime Minister.

The India event was divided into two main sessions, in addition to the high level segment. The first session related to India’s innovation success stories. Speakers included Ms. Jyotsna Sitling, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Mr. Rajiv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Mr. Ramanan Ramanathan, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog.

WIPO Economist and Co-Editor of the GII Sacha Wunsch-Vincent presents the 2018 edition of the GII (photo: Courtesy of Confederation of Indian Industry).

The second session was on “Innovation: National & International Perspectives” and highlighted the achievements, business and policy practices of India and other countries which have progressed significantly in the GII. Speakers included Mr. Pedro Ivo Ferraz da Silva, Head of the Energy, Environment and Science, Technology & Innovation Section,

Embassy of Brazil in New Delhi, Ms. Maria Lunander, Head, Science and Innovation, Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi and Mr. Sushil K. Satpute, Director, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India.

Now in its 11th edition, the GII is a detailed quantitative tool that helps global decision makers better understand how to stimulate the innovative activity that drives economic and human development. The GII ranks 126 economies based on 80 indicators, ranging from intellectual property filing rates to mobile-application creation, education spending and scientific and technical publications.

The GII is co-published by Cornell University, INSEAD, and the WIPO. The study benefits from the experience of its Knowledge Partners: Confederation of Indian Industry, PwC's Strategy&, and the National Confederation of Industry (CNI) and Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), as well as of an Advisory Board of international experts.