Sikkim has slipped down to the fourth position in the second edition of India Innovation Index 2020 under ‘North-Eastern/Hill States’ category while Manipur stood third in the category.
Himachal Pradesh with 25.06 score moved up from the second position to emerge as the top ranker this year, while top performer in 2019, in India Innovation Index, Sikkim with 20.28 score went down to the fourth position.
The Index which was released by Niti Aayog on Wednesday examines the innovation capabilities and performance of the states and union territories. The first edition of the index was launched in October 2019.
With a score of 23.50 Uttarakhand bagged the second position, and Manipur (22.78) bagged the third position in North-Eastern/Hill States category.
With a score of 16.93 Mizoram bagged the fifth position, followed by Assam (16.38), Arunachal Pradesh (14.90), Nagaland (14.11), Tripura (12.84), and Meghalaya (12.15).
In the ‘Major States’ category, Karnataka continued to occupy the top position, while Maharashtra moved past Tamil Nadu to reach the second place. Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab completed the top ten in that order.
Karnataka’s rank is attributable to its substantive number of venture capital deals, registered geographical indicators and information and communications technology exports. Karnataka’s high Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow has also enhanced the innovation capabilities of the state. Four southern states—Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala—occupied the top five spots under the ‘Major States’ category this year.
Overall, Delhi retained its first rank, while Chandigarh made a big leap since 2019 and landed in the second place this year.
The India Innovation Index 2020 was released by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Dr Rajiv Kumar, in the presence of Member (Health) Dr VK Paul, Member (Agriculture) Dr Ramesh Chand, CEO Amitabh Kant, Adviser (Science and Technology) Neeraj Sinha, and Institute for Competitiveness Chair Dr Amit Kapoor.
In the second edition too, the index found that the level of competitiveness among the states and union territories was high, which is essential for them to continually improve on their enabling factors as well as innovation performance.
NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, “The India Innovation Index is a major step towards measuring innovation outcomes of states and facilitating optimal utilization of national and state mechanisms to realize the goal of an Atma Nirbhar Bharat.”