Imphal: Manipur has emerged the best performing state among the ‘North East and Hill States’ category in the third edition of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog’s India Innovation Index 2021.
The North-Eastern and Hill States category comprises 10 states. The average score in this category is 14.41. Manipur with a score of 19.37 is at the top and Nagaland with a score of 11 is at the bottom.
Manipur scored best in the knowledge workers and safety and legal environment pillars. Nagaland and Tripura scored the lowest due to their unutilised talent as indicated by their low performance in human capital and business environment, which indicates that their innovation capabilities have not been harnessed to their full potential.
Assam scored the ninth position in the “North East and Hill States’ category.
The index was released by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery on Thursday in the presence of Member Dr VK Saraswat, CEO Parameswaran Iyer and Senior Adviser Neeraj Sinha, and Institute for Competitiveness Chairman Dr Amit Kapoor.
While Karnataka has topped again in the ‘Major States’ category, Chandigarh is the top performer in the ‘Union Territories and City States’ category.
‘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,’ said Dr Saraswat.
‘I would like to reaffirm NITI Aayog’s continued commitment to monitoring the state of innovation in India through the India Innovation Index. We strive to improve the innovation ecosystem across the nation in partnership with the states and other stakeholders,’ said Iyer.
What is the India Innovation Index?
Prepared by 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 in the country 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). The indicators are now distributed across 16 sub-pillars, which, in turn, form seven key pillars.
The contours of the India Innovation Index 2021 remain the same as last year. Similar to the previous edition, the five ‘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.
‘Innovation is critical in promoting the country’s resilience and self-reliance. The index points to the decentralization of innovation across all Indian states,’ said NITI Aayog Senior Adviser Neeraj Sinha.
‘The index also draws some international parallels, which will add to India’s learnings and how we can be on a par with our counterparts,’ said Institute for Competitiveness Chairman Dr Amit Kapoor.
The India Innovation Index 2021 is a testament to the Government of India’s continued commitment to transforming the country into an innovation-driven economy.
The India Innovation Index 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.
