With an aim to boost research and innovation in the country, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal launched the Global Innovation Index (GII) in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The event is being co-hosted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in collaboration with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Putting the spotlight on the healthcare area, the event’s theme is “Creating Healthy Lives – The Future of Medical Innovation.” It aims to explore the role of medical innovation to shape the future of healthcare.
“Innovation has become central to the government’s economic policy during the last few years. India has jumped 24 places in the Global Innovation Index in four years, from 81st position in 2015, it achieved the 57th position in 2018,” said the statement from the ministry.
According to the ministry, this is for the first time that the GII is being launched in an emerging economy.
In 2016, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion created a high-level task-force on Innovation to improve India’s innovation system based on the GII metrics.
In 2017, the first international consultative exercise was organized to address India-specific data gaps in the GII, and to improve India’s innovation performance.
In collaboration with WIPO, the first India innovation index – focusing on ranking Indian states – was conceptualized in 2017 and released a year later.