India World’s #1 Country For IT Services; Climbs 15 Spots To Reach #61 on Global Innovation Index

India’s fame and name for being top service provider of Information and Communication Technology is now recognized by the UN. In the The Global Innovation Index 2016, the UN has declared India as world’s #1 country in the export of ICT Services (Information & Communication Technology).

Overall, India has climbed massive 15 spots to reach #6 in the overall Innovation ranking of the world. Last year, we were placed #8. The world is surprised and shocked over India’s tremendous improvement in this high profile ranking of nations, which is closely monitored by the corporate world.

India has been ranked #1 in the category for Central and Southern Asia.

Switzerland has topped the list this year, whereas Sweden is ranked #2 and UK is ranked #3 in innovation, globally. This year, China entered the top 25 ranking, thereby becoming the first nation from the middle-income group to reach world’s 25-most innovative countries.

The report observes: “It (India) shows particular strengths in tertiary education and R&D, including global R&D intensive firms, the quality of its universities and scientific publications, its market sophistication and ICT service exports where it ranks first in the world..”

If we observe only those countries which have middle-income economies, then India is right now only next to China in terms of innovation ranking, as we overtook Brazil this year. The report has mentioned that India has actually ‘over-performed in innovation, relative to its GDP’

What Are The Secrets Behind India’s Incredible Improvement?

There are numerous factors being mentioned in the report, which highlights the main pointers which led to India’s incredible improvement of 15 spots within a year.

To start with, Indian Govt. has made growth and innovation friendly policies which has ensured that the country receives the best offers and skills when it comes to research and development.

Both ICT exports and creative goods export has received a boost due to business friendly policies of the Govt.

Besides, India’s university ranking has improved a lot, now standing at #2 among middle-income economies, and 20th globally, which enabled better ranking in the innovation index. In terms of graduates of Science and Technology, India now ranks #8 globally, which formed the base of improved innovation index.

Within Human Capital index, India has improved 40 spots within a year; in Business Sophistication, we have climbed 59 spots and in Knowledge and Technology Output, we are now ranked 43rd globally.

In the ranking of firms offering formal trainings to their employees, India now ranks 42, which is an improvement of 56 spots compared to last year.

But.. Challenges Still Remain

There are few grey areas still remaining, which needs immediate attention from the Govt. if they want to further improve India’s innovation index globally.

Mainly, there are two metrics in which India has performed badly: Business Environment where we are ranked #117 and Education, where we are placed #118 this year.

Surprisingly, in the Ease of Doing Business ranking, we are placed at #114, which is way below other Asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia and within Education metrics, we are placed #103 for student-pupil ratio ranking, which has brought our overall ranking down.

Environmental performance takes a beating as we are ranked #110; new businesses are hard to start as we are placed #101 in this metrics; printing and publishing ranking is also down at #84.

The report was created after studying 100 global economies, and was released by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Here is the entire ranking of Global Innovation Index 2016.