Karnataka, Manipur, Chandigarh top NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index

Karnataka, Manipur, and Chandigarh have topped in their respective categories in the third edition of NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index released on Thursday.

While Karnataka has topped again in the ‘Major States’ category, Manipur leads ‘North East and Hill States’, and Chandigarh is the top performer in the ‘Union Territories and City States’ category, as per the index.

The India Innovation Index, prepared by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness, ranks states and the union territories on their innovation performance to build healthy competition.

‘Innovation is critical in promoting the country’s resilience and self-reliance. The index points to the decentralization of innovation across all Indian states,” said NITI Aayog Senior Advisor Neeraj Sinha.

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As per the official release, the third edition highlights the scope of innovation in the country by drawing on the framework of the Global Innovation Index. The number of indicators has increased from 36 (in the India Innovation Index 2020) to 66 (in the India Innovation Index 2021), the release added. The indicators are now distributed across 16 sub-pillars, which, in turn, form seven key pillars. 

The contours of the India Innovation Index 2021 remain the same as last year. Similar to the previous edition, the five ‘Enabler’ pillars measure inputs and the two ‘Performance’ pillars measure output. All the indicators in the Enabler pillars cover features crucial for promoting innovation within a state/union territory. Indicators in the Performance pillars represent a nation’s output in knowledge creation and competitiveness.

"The index also draws some international parallels, which will add to India’s learnings and how we can be on a par with our counterparts," said Institute for Competitiveness Chairman Dr Amit Kapoor.