Based mostly on pre-Modi data, top report finds India "jumping" 15 points in Global Innovation Index 2016

Modi aide and Niti Ayog vice-chairman Panagariya's tweet

While top aides of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have declared, on the basis of the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2016, that India showing an improvement of 15 points in a year suggests the Modi government’s strategy to encourage innovation, significantly, most of the GII score is based on data collected in 2014 or earlier.
Of the 82 indicators, on the basis of which the GII score has been worked out, just 22 are based on data from 2015, while 41, or exactly half, on data from 2014. Modi came to power in May 2014. Rest of the data is either of the year 2012 or 2013, when the UPA was firmly in the saddle.
While the 451-page GII 2016 report, which has been jointly sponsored by top institutes Cornell University, INSTEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization, its knowledge partners include Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India’s top industries body, followed by well-known consultants AT Kearney, and the European Innovation Management Academy.
Prepared by Soumitra Dutta, Bruno Lanvin and Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, the report says, “Gone are the days when the local could not drive the global. As nations in the developing world become ever more globalized, innovation linkages are quickly gaining prominence, leading to collaboration among nations involving academia and industry as a key driver of economic growth.”
“India maintains its top place in the region (South Asia), moving up 15 spots from 81st last year to 66th overall”, the report states, adding, the second country to come close to India is Kazakhstan, moving up seven spots, from 82nd to 75th overall. The Islamic Republic of Iran ranks 78th, followed by Tajikistan 86th, Sri Lanka 91st, Bhutan 96th, Kyrgyzstan 103rd, Nepal 115th, Bangladesh 117th, and Pakistan 119th.
Switzerland ranks No 1 in GII 2016, followed by Sweden, UK, US, Singapore, Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany and South Korea. Japan ranks No 16, Australia No 19, China No 25, Russia No 43, South Africa No 54, and Brazil No 69.
Indicators that that “helped” improve India’s overall performance, the report indicates, include “bilateral or plurilateral” funding for R&D partnerships and policy dialogues such as the US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.
The report includes an article“Leveraging Talent Globally to Scale Indian Innovation” by Gopichand Katragadda, Tata Sons, Aravind Bharadwaj, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, which claims, “India has all the ingredients needed to become a global driver of innovation: It has a strong market potential, an excellent talent pool, and an underlying culture of frugal innovation.”
“The country maintains stable or improved rankings across all pillars, with the most significant improvements in human capital and research (up 40 spots) and business sophistication (up 59 spots)”, “India’s ranking in the business sophistication pillar is affected most by a substantial improvement in knowledge workers (up 46 spots) and knowledge absorption (up 33 spots).”
At the same time, the report regrets, “India shows weakness in two sub-pillars: Business environment (117th) and education (118th). In the former pillar, ease of starting a business (114th), and in the latter, the pupil-teacher ratio (103rd) and tertiary inbound mobility (99th) are three areas where India can seek improvement.”
“Progress is also needed in environmental performance (110th) on the input side; on the output side, indicators measuring new businesses (101st), global entertainment and media market (59th), and printing and publishing manufactures (84th) all show room for improvement”, it says.

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.

Search This Blog