As the world changes, the need to constantly push toward innovative ideas to meet the challenges ahead also increases. At the same time, innovation needs to be guided by the future demand for goods and services. This has been highlighted in recent years by the tremendous increase in technologies developed such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing, 3D printing etc. Though India still has a long way to go to become a leader in developing cutting-edge, path-breaking and innovative technologies, the groundwork has been done.
Innovation and creativity are vital to achieving progress in socio-economic, education-, healthcare- and agriculture-related fields. R&D will lead to increased productivity, expand the markets, and create employment and wealth. As the world grows more competitive and we confront a number of difficulties—including climate change, new technologies that are reshaping business models, and, most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic—innovation is more important than ever.
India has begun to carve a path towards an enabling environment by establishing an ecosystem that fosters innovation. As emphasized by the Prime Minister in his appeal for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, innovation is critical in promoting the country’s resilience and self- reliance. The index points to the decentralisation of innovation across all Indian states.
The third edition of index highlights a comprehensive tool towards the country’s innovation ecosystem by ranking the states and UTs based on various paradigms and building competition amongst each other for better growth and development of states and UTs.
The index is a diligently prepared and well-articulated document for which I want to thank my team at NITI Aayog as well as our knowledge partner, Institute for Competitiveness, for its valuable time, research and insights for the preparation of this report.
