INTRODUCTION
The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2024 released on September 26, 2024 took the world by storm and once again showcased that innovations in India are growing by leaps and bounds. . The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), has recently released a comprehensive Geographical Innovation Index report of 2024, by evaluating numerous pillars such as institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, business sophistication, knowledge and technology outputs along with creative outputs1 and ranked India at 39th spot for the year 20242.
The high-income economies such as Switzerland, Sweden and United States bagged Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively but India is a winner in their own league. It is commendable to mention that India thrived as years passed by and has jumped 42 positions since 2015. Despite coming in the category of Lower middle-income, India continues to impress and have secured a spot in top 50 economies out of 133.
Upon further evaluation of India's performance in 2024, it is pertinent to highlight that amongst the Income group rank category (Lower middle-income) and Region rank category (Central and Southern Asia), India ranks one and thereby showcases the phenomenal performance in field of innovation.
INDIA'S WORLD RANKINGS AND SCORING: OVER THE YEARS
The trend in the ranking and scoring for India is positive with rank improving to 39 in 2024 from 81 in 2015 and score improving to 38.3 in 2024 from 31.74 in 2015. Some of the intrinsic factors which have contributed towards this spurt in innovation are numerous schemes and Intellectual property policies introduced by the Indian Government. Various initiatives such as IP Mitra (SIPP Scheme), IP Manthan, SIP-EIT Scheme (Miety), IP Facilitation Centres of MSME, NIPAM and CIPAM, KIRAN IPR scheme, WIPO TISC program and National IPR Policy play a beneficial role, not just for rankings or scorings as such but for citizens at large. The trajectory of the said trends is iterated below:
Source: WIPO3
The aforesaid schemes not only encourage budding entrepreneurs to take a leap of faith and materialize their dreams and ideas, but also encourage development of innovative technologies that are unheard of. . Entrepreneurs all across India thrive to come up with better and unique technologies that contribute to overall advancement in field of Intellectual Property Rights. India's encouraging start-up ecosystem, presence of multiple science and technology clusters along with entrepreneurship policies and culture, aid in the consistent improvement in it's GII ranking.
INDIA'S NOTABLE IMPROVEMENT: THE ESSENCE OF INNOVATION
India continues to be the leader for knowledge and technology outputs in the Central and South Asian region. The major contributing factors in the knowledge creation and entrepreneurship comes from patents and PCT applications by the residents of the country, and the scientific and technical articles published in the research journals. In the past year, 82811 patent applications were filed before the Indian Patent Office (IPO) and for the first time, the number of domestic patent applications surpassed the number of foreign applications filed4. There was also an increase of 13.5% in the number of patents granted. The top patented fields include digital communication, computer technology and transport. The trends in the patent applications filed in India for the past years, also substantiates an upswing in the number of applications filed by the residents of the country, as shown below:
Source: IPO5
Further, an overall growth in the filing and processing of applications for various IPRs, fuelled by the support of Government of India, played a major role in India's ascend in the GII. This increasing trend in areas of IPR applications, which includes Patent, Design, Trademark, Geographical Indication and Semiconductor Integrated Layout Designs (SCILD), is shown below:.
Source: IPO6
India's aforesaid achievements is just a tip of iceberg. India also showed a rise in the presence of social entrepreneurs, who are trying to tackle global social and environmental challenges by merging innovation with business. Bandhu Urban Tech, providing housing for migrant workers driven by big data and AI and Community Design Agency (CDA) designing housing and workplaces for marginalised communities are some of them7.
With strengthened institutional framework and encouragement in entrepreneurship, India is expected to make further progress in all the pillars enshrined in GII and continue to rise in the future rankings.8
Footnotes
1. https://www.wipo.int/gii-ranking/en/about
2. GII 2024 https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/global-innovation-index-2024/assets/67729/2000%20Global%20Innovation%20Index%202024_WEB2.pdf page 18 of 326
3. GII 2024 rank https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/global-innovation-index-2024/assets/67729/2000%20Global%20Innovation%20Index%202024_WEB2.pdf page 18 of 326;
GII 2020 rank https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2020.pdf page 33 of 448;
GII 2017 rank https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2017.pdf page 20 of 463;
GII 2015 rank https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_gii_2015.pdf page 33 of 453
4. Annual Report 2022-23, Intellectual Property India: https://ipindia.gov.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOAnnualReport/1_114_1_ANNUAL_REPORT_202223_English.pdf page 4 to 8
5. Supra
6. Supra
7. Supra page 25 of 326
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