India's rising innovation ranking masks critical R&D collaboration gap

In India, a country obsessed with ranks, it’s no surprise that the government, too, loves to tout a good report card. So, it came as little surprise when, just a few months ago, the Press Information Bureau—the media relations arm of the Indian government—issued a release celebrating the results of the 2024 World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index (GII).

While India only placed 39th on the index, which ranks the world’s most innovative economies, this latest ranking represented a continuous upward trajectory over the past decade. For context, India ranked an abysmal 81 in 2015. 

The devil, however, lies in the details. A closer look at India’s ranking shows that despite its upward mobility, the country ranks a dismal 86th worldwide—its lowest standing ever—in terms of research and development (R&D) collaboration between institutes of higher learning and industry. In 2017 and 2019, it stood 23rd in this category.

This indicates that while India may excel in research, not enough of this happens in partnership with the industry for real-world problem-solving. And while academia provides expertise and innovation, industry offers funding, practical applications, and market access.