DIMAPUR, JANUARY 22 (MExN): Nagaland State ranked 8th out 10 among the North East and hilly states of the country in the recently released India Innovation Index 2020.
The Index which was released by Niti Aayog on January 21 examines the innovation capabilities and performance of the states and union territories. The first edition of the index was launched in October 2019.
With an efficacy ratio of 0.27 and a score of 14.11, Nagaland “underperformed” in a majority of the indicators (termed as ‘enabler pillars’ and ‘performance pillars’) used to judge the State’s score. Nagaland “underperformed” in terms of human capital, investment, safety and legal environment, knowledge workers and knowledge output.
On a positive note the Index showed Nagaland performed within the expected range in terms of business environment and knowledge diffusion.
Meanwhile, the index showed that the State is over-performing with regard to pupil to teacher ratio in higher education, the number of R&D institutions funded by the State, the number of grassroots innovations in the State, and the number of registered GIs.
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, Sikkim with 20.28 score went down to the fourth position in the North-Eastern and Hill States category.
With a score of 23.50 Uttarakhand bagged the second position, and Manipur at 22.78 bagged the third position. With a score of 16.93 Mizoram stood at 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.
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.
The Index measures innovation inputs through ‘Five Enablers pillars’ and ‘Two Performance pillars’:
The five enablers’ pillars capture elements of the state economy that act as inputs for the innovation environment. They include human capital, investment, knowledge works, business environment, safety and legal environment.
The two performance pillars include knowledge output and knowledge diffusion.
Each pillar comprises relevant indicators that were carefully selected to ensure a fair and accurate analysis of their respective pillars, according to the report. The indicators cover both macroeconomic (government) and microeconomic (private enterprise) aspects.
