The Economic Survey 2025-26 highlighted India’s rise in the Global Innovation Index from 66th place in 2019 to 38th, attributing gains to targeted government investment in research and development and startup ecosystems. Innovation rankings weigh factors including institutional quality, human capital, infrastructure, and market sophistication.
Policy measures cited in the survey include expanded public research funding, intellectual property reforms, and incentives for industry-academia collaboration in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, space, and digital technology. Improved scores signal progress but still place India below leading East Asian and Western economies on several sub-indices.
Innovation performance varies across states, with clusters in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi-NCR concentrating venture capital and skilled labor while other regions lag in patent filings and high-tech exports. Regional balance remains a policy challenge despite national aggregate improvements.
Analysts noted that index movements can reflect methodological updates as well as genuine performance changes, recommending continued focus on measurable outputs like commercialized patents and productivity growth rather than rank alone.
Parliamentarians referenced the survey during budget debates as evidence supporting continued R&D allocations amid fiscal constraints and competing demands for welfare and infrastructure spending. University research output and patent filing rates in biotechnology and space technology contributed to sub-score improvements even as India continues investing in semiconductor fabrication goals that could further lift rankings if commercialization accelerates. Private R&D spending remains lower as a share of GDP than in leading innovator economies.
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Sources:
https://ddnews.gov.in/en/tag/parliament/