Manipur tops NITI Aayog’s Innovation Index 2021

The third edition highlights the scope of innovation analysis across the nation, by drawing on the framework of the Global Innovation Index.

Manipur has topped the third edition of NITI Aayog’s India Innovation Index 2021 under the ‘North East and Hill States’ category.

The index was released today, i.e, on Thursday by the Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog – Suman Bery in the presence of Member Dr VK Saraswat, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Parameswaran Iyer, Senior Adviser – Neeraj Sinha, and Chairman of Institute for Competitiveness – Dr Amit Kapoor.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Saraswat noted that “Innovation is the key to sustainable and inclusive growth. It can help us solve the biggest challenges of our times: bringing millions out of poverty, generating livelihood opportunities, and paving the way for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”

Prepared by National Institution for Transforming India (NITI)-Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness, the India Innovation Index is a comprehensive tool for the evaluation and development of the country’s innovation ecosystem.

It ranks the states and the union territories on their innovation performance to build healthy competition amongst them.

The third edition highlights the scope of innovation analysis across the nation, 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). It is now distributed across 16 sub-pillars, which, in turn, form seven key pillars.

As per the overall rankings of Northeast & Hill States, Manipur stands at 1st position with 19.37 points; Meghalaya stands at third position with 16 points; Arunachal Pradesh with 15.46 points secures 4th position; Sikkim & Mizoram stands at 6th & 7th position respectively; Tripura, Assam & Nagaland stands at 8th, 9th and 10th position respectively.

Manipur scored the highest on indicators like Research & Development (R&D) expenditure as a percentage of GSDP, whereas Arunachal Pradesh scored the highest on indicators like expenditure on science, technology, and environment as a percentage of GSDP. It also received high FDI inflow in the North-Eastern and Hilly States category.

Meanwhile, the 5 ‘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.

Its worthy to note that the ‘India Innovation Index’ is a testament to the Government of India’s continued commitment to transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.

It also contributes to the Government’s effort to monitor select global indices through the Global Indices to drive Reform and Growth (GIRG) mechanism, for which the NITI Aayog is the nodal organization.

COMMENTS