As NITI Aayog prepares the next India Innovation Index, India has an opportunity to redefine how it measures innovation – not just for rankings. The Innovators Jam breaks down the opportunities for India:
Innovation has become one of the most overused words in policymaking. Every state wants to become an ‘innovation hub.’ Every city wants to attract startups. Every budget promises more support for research and entrepreneurship. But before governments can improve innovation, they must answer a deceptively simple question:
How do you measure innovation?
That question is back in focus after NITI Aayog invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) from research institutions to help develop the next India Innovation Index.
A good innovation index influences public policy, directs investments, encourages healthy competition among states, and ultimately shapes the country’s scientific and technological future.
What Innovation Indices signal:
Innovation cannot be measured by a single statistic. A country with thousands of startups may still struggle to commercialise research. Another may produce world-class patents but fail to create high-growth companies.
That is why leading global innovation indices combine dozens of indicators covering education, research, business, infrastructure, finance, intellectual property, and technology adoption.
The best-known example is the Global Innovation Index (GII) published annually by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It evaluates nearly 140 economies using around 80 indicators spanning innovation inputs and outputs.
India has steadily climbed the GII—from 81st in 2015 to 38th in 2025, making it the leading lower-middle-income economy and the top performer in Central and Southern Asia.
That progress reflects improvements in startup activity, venture capital, and knowledge creation. It also highlights an important reality: innovation is measured across an entire ecosystem—not just by counting startups.
What other countries measure:
Countries that consistently rank among the world’s most innovative don’t rely on a single national metric. Instead, they benchmark themselves using comprehensive frameworks that influence policy.
1. Global Innovation Index (WIPO)
The GII is considered the global benchmark for national innovation ecosystems. It measures five key innovation inputs – institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market sophistication, and business sophistication—alongside innovation outputs such as knowledge creation, technology diffusion, and creative industries.
2. European Innovation Scoreboard
The European Union’s Innovation Scoreboard goes beyond rankings. It compares member states across research investment, digitalisation, SME innovation, green technologies, collaboration between academia and industry, and intellectual property. Instead of merely producing a league table, it groups countries as Innovation Leaders, Strong Innovators, Moderate Innovators, and Emerging Innovators.
The emphasis is on identifying gaps that governments can address rather than celebrating winners.
3. OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators
The OECD maintains one of the world’s richest innovation datasets. It tracks R&D spending, researchers per capita, venture capital, patent quality, university-industry collaboration, productivity, and technology diffusion. These indicators help governments evaluate whether public investment in science translates into economic growth.
What India’s Innovation Index should measure:
If India wants to become one of the world’s top innovation economies, its national index must evolve beyond conventional metrics.
1. Research that reaches the market:
India produces a growing volume of scientific publications, but commercialising research remains a challenge. Instead of measuring only research papers or patents, the index should evaluate:
- Technology licensing revenue
- University spin-offs
- Startups emerging from public research institutions
- Industry-funded research
- Successful technology transfers
2. Deep-tech quality, not startup quantity:
India is the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, but an innovation index should distinguish between consumer internet businesses and deep-tech ventures developing AI, semiconductors, quantum technologies, biotechnology, advanced materials, robotics, or space technologies. The number of startups matters less than the complexity of the problems they solve.
3. Patent impact:
Patent counts alone can be misleading. The index should include indicators such as:
- International patent filings
- Patent citations
- Commercialised patents
- Industry licensing
- Revenue generated from intellectual property
4. University–industry collaboration:
Countries like South Korea, Germany, and Singapore consistently outperform because universities work closely with industry. India’s index should reward:
- Joint research programmes
- Industrial PhDs
- Corporate-funded laboratories
- Shared innovation infrastructure
- Technology transfer offices
5. AI and emerging technologies:
The next innovation index should explicitly recognise India’s progress in:
- Artificial intelligence
- Semiconductor manufacturing
- Quantum technologies
- Space technology
- Clean energy
- Biotechnology
- Advanced manufacturing
These sectors are increasingly shaping national competitiveness.
6. Public sector innovation:
Government innovation rarely appears in rankings. Digital public infrastructure such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) have become globally recognised examples of technology-led governance. A national innovation index should capture such innovations alongside the private-sector ones.
7. Innovation beyond metro cities:
Innovation isn’t confined to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, or Pune. States should be assessed on how effectively they nurture innovation in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities through incubators, maker spaces, research parks, and local entrepreneurship.
Questions worth asking include:
- How many startups survived beyond five years?
- How much research reached commercial markets?
- How many patents became products?
- How much private investment followed public R&D?
- How many high-tech manufacturing jobs were created?
The outputs would reveal whether innovation policies are actually working.
The Innovators Jam take:
An innovation index should not be treated as a report card, rather it should function as a national dashboard. If designed well, it can tell policymakers where talent is emerging, where research is succeeding, where investment is lacking, and which states are building the industries of the future.
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