Daijiworld Media Network: Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jan 21: Karnataka has yet again topped Niti Aayog's Innovation Index, while Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu ranked second and third respectively. This is the second time that Karnataka has secured the first position on Niti Aayog's Innovation Index

The index released by Aayog's vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant on Wednesday, January 20 has been developed in the lines of Global Innovation Index. Telangana and Kerala ranked fourth and fifth on the Index.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar ranked at the bottom of the list.

Among Union Territories, Delhi topped the chart, while in the North-Eastern and Hill States category Himachal Pradesh occupied the top spot.

"Amongst major states, the average innovation score is 25.35. Karnataka tops at 42.5, which is attributable to its strong number of venture capital deals, registered GIs (Geographical Indications) and ICT (Information and Communication Technology) exports. Karnataka's high FDI inflow has also enhanced the innovation capabilities of the state," the India Innovation Index 2020 said.

Maharastra ranked second with an innovation score of 38, while Bihar finished last at 14.5.

"The case for the southern states as the top performers has also become stronger as four of them occupy the top-five spots within the major states," it added.

The Index noted that the innovation score of Union Territories and city-states averages at 26.01. Delhi was the best performer among all groups.

Speaking at the event, vice-chairman Kumar said the office of the principal scientific advisor and Niti Aayog are working closely to create a seamless interaction among institutions that are there in any city to improve India's innovation ecosystem.

Further, Kumar stated that with the support of principal scientific advisor K Vijay Raghavan, the Niti Aayog is put in all the efforts to attract Indian talent from abroad.

"There are some schemes (to bring back Indian talent) already, we want to sharpen them, we want to improve them," the Niti Aayog vice-chairman said.

"Maybe that will also become an indicator... Which state is able to attract a larger number of Indian talent back to the country, making our system more flexible, less red tape and by making our environment far more attractive," he added.

The India Innovation Index 2020, ranks the states and union territories based on their relative performance of supporting innovation and aims to empower them to improve their innovation policies by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

The states and union territories have been divided into 17 'major states', 10 'North-Eastern and hill states' and 9 'city-states and union territories', for effectively comparing their performance.

Overall, the framework of India Innovation Index 2020, consists of 36 indicators, which include hard data (32 indicators) and four composite indicators.