Noting an exponential rise in the field of innovation with the efforts of the government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that India's Global Innovation Index ranking has improved from 81 in 2015 to 46 now.
"The campaign that is going on in India regarding innovation has the effect that India's ranking in the Global Innovation Index has improved a lot. In 2015, India was at number 81 in this ranking. Now, India is at number 46 in the Innovation Index," the Prime Minster said in his virtual interaction with startups.
GII's index comprises around 80 indicators, including measures on the political environment, education, infrastructure and knowledge creation of each economy. Notably, the 2021 edition of the index also focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on innovation and India's ranking highlights that the country is treading well on the path of innovation despite the pandemic.
The Prime Minister in his address said that in the year 2013-14, 4,000 patents were approved, last year, more than 28 thousand patents were granted. In the year 2013-14, where about 70,000 trademarks were registered, in 2020-21 more than 2.5 lakh trademarks have been registered. In the year 2013-14, where only 4,000 copyrights were granted, last year their number has crossed 16,000.
The Prime Minister also said that India's startup ecosystem is continuously discovering and improving itself. "It is in a constant state of learning and changing," he added.
PM Modi also said, "India's startups are now working in 55 different industries. Five years ago, India didn't have even 500 startups! Today, that number has crossed 60,000."
Noting that the country has several education institutions for youth's learning, the Prime Minister said that India has more than 1,000 universities, over 11,000 stand alone institutions, over 42,000 colleges and lakhs of schools. "These are our strengthens and we have to capitalise them. We must encourage our youth to innovate," he added.
PM Modi also said, "With over 9,000 Atal Tinkering Labs and thousands of Hackathons, we are encouraging our youth to solve today's problems with innovation and technology."
