Karnataka Becomes Most Innovative State, Delhi Tops Among UTs In Niti Aayog's First Innovation Index

Karnataka has been ranked as the most innovative state in the country in NITI Aayog’s Innovation Index 2019 released on Thursday. The first of its kind index was released by Vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and CEO Amitabh Kant.

Proud moment for us, as #Karnataka tops @NITIAayog 's first ever India Innovation Index.
It's possible because of the synergy between the administration, investors and the people of the state who are always open and supportive of innovation & ideas.https://t.co/NU9k2ip4GT

— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) October 17, 2019

The ranking was categorised into, ‘Major States’, ‘North East and Hill States’ and ‘Union Territories (UTs)/City and the Small States’.

Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh held the top ten spots in the major states category. Sikkim occupied the top spots among the northeastern hill states while Delhi bagged the top spot among union territories. Delhi was also one of the most efficient states in translating inputs into output along with Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.

Congratulations to all Delhiites for coming first in Niti Aayog's Innovation Index

Delhi govt's investments into high quality education, health and infrastructure are showing results. https://t.co/xFXXzeqGM6

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) October 17, 2019

Chattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand recorded a poor performance and remained at the bottom of the index, attracting the least investment.

India has a unique opportunity among its myriad challenges to become the innovation leader in the world: #NITIAayog CEO @amitabhk87 at the launch of #IndiaInnovationIndex https://t.co/q1aUo90uHF

— NITI Aayog (@NITIAayog) October 18, 2019

While speaking at the event Niti Aayog vice-chairman, Rajiv Kumar said, “Innovation has always been a driver of change and progress in any economy as it disrupts traditional practices and businesses.”

“The first-ever India Innovation Index will help create a conducive ecosystem for innovation to flourish across the country. The index will not only help to devise their own strategy for fostering an innovation climate but will also enable them to improve performance with other states,” he added.

The motive behind the index is to analyse innovation at the state level. The index ranks the states based on their innovation capability, the challenges, opportunities, and actions needed by policymakers to foster innovation.

“For a country as large as India, the state of innovation needs to be understood at the regional level for effective policy formulation. A policy just at the national level is not enough. Each state needs to formulate its own policy, based on its unique resources and strengths and which caters to the specific needs,” the report said.

The index is based on seven pillars, including five enablers and two performance indicators, some of which include human capital, investment, knowledge workers and knowledge output.

“The index will be useful to states and union territories by benchmarking their performance against their peers to understand reasons for differential performance and devise better strategies towards creating an environment that fosters innovation,” Kant added.

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