Karnataka retains the spot as the most innovative state in India, followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telengana and Kerala. In the list of India Innovation Index 2020 released by NITI Aayog on January 20, 2021, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Manipur are in the top three positions among the north-east and hilly states while Delhi, Chandigarh, and Daman and Diu topped the list among the union territories in India.

The first India Innovation Index was released in October 2019.

Rajiv Kumar, the vice chairman of NITI Aayog, said, “Our aim is to sync India Innovation Index with the Global Innovation Index which has 80 parameters compared to 36 in India”.

These 36 indicators in turn add hard data (32 indicators) and four composite indicators.

This year’s India Innovation Index has witnessed new indicators added, where majority being the expenditure by the states on R&D and new business registration in the state.

Amitabh Kant, the CEO of NITI Aayog, said during the launch of the index, “Innovation can help India boost its manufacturing competitiveness and exports. It will play a key role in upholding the spirit of Aatmanirbhar Bharat”.
According to Amitabh, the index is in line with the Aayog’s vision of competitive federalism wherein states are ranked across various parameters including health, education and agriculture.

He added, “The index learnings can be used in devising policies both at the Central and state levels”.

The release is jointly prepared by the Aayog and the Institute of Competitiveness, the Government ranks the states and UTs based on their relative performance of supporting innovation, and empowers them to improve their innovation policies by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

The states and UTs are divided into 17 major states, 10 north-east and hill states, and nine city states and UTs for effective comparison of their performance. The states and UTs are ranked on two broad categories which are outcome and governance.

India Innovation Index 2020 is created on the previous year’s methodology by introducing more metrics and providing a holistic outlook of the Indian innovation ecosystem.

The framework has been updated to include globally considered parameters for measurement of innovation like percentage of gross domestic product spent on research and development, while retaining the parameters particular to the Indian economy.
The index captures the trends and provides detailed analyses of the various factors like driving innovation in the country, state and district levels.