Government and industry must synergise their efforts to promote R&D and innovation in the country. This was stated by Shri. Ratan P Watal, Principal Adviser, NITI Aayog & Member Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister at the India launch of Global Innovation Index 2018 in New Delhi on Wednesday 8th August 2018.
The event was organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – one of the founding partners of GII along with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in collaboration with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
India’s rank on the Global Innovation Index (GII) has improved from 60 in 2017 to 57 in 2018. India has been consistently climbing the GII ranking for the past two years.
Launching the index, Mr Watal said, “The culture of spending on research and development is growing in India and we are seeing the results in the form of improvements in rankings such as the GII.”
He further said that GII 2018 report served another purpose. It provided an opportunity to look at examples from similar economies from across the world and understand how they effected change in their countries. He also drew a distinction between Innovation and Invention and emphasized the role of pure science in building scientific temper in the country. Mr. Watal underlined the need to-
- Transform India’s Innovation Ecosystem by formulating a New Innovation Policy to attract R&D investment into cutting edge technologies and build appropriate infrastructure and institutions
- Tap Global hotspots of Innovation in latest technologies like AI, Blockchain and Robotics etc.
- Connect Tinkering labs in schools with start-ups, business and high end educational institutions
- Target efficient, productive and outcome driven R&D in the Government Sector
Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Anil Kakodkar, who is author of the India chapter in the report said that “we must devise strategies to address our energy deficit, to ensure sustainable domestic energy supply”. He emphasized the need to look for innovative ways to tackle the country’s energy problems.
Assistant Director General, World Intellectual Property Organization, Naresh Prasad, said that GII enabled countries to compare their innovation performances and benchmark with others, he also added that WIPO would like to work with India to build its innovation ecosystem. He thanked CII for its sustained work in driving innovation.
