Indian Innovation Index: Odisha Loses Two Ranks Thanks to Pandemic

Odisha has slipped two places on the Indian Innovation Index and secured 14^th rank in the new list of states released recently. Ranked 12 on the index in 2019, the state is seeing a trend of slowdown on the technology and innovation front.

Meanwhile, Karnataka maintained its top rank.

The Indian Innovation Index is determined by taking into account the innovation capabilities and performance of individual states and the outcome of the innovation machinery of the state along with its contribution to the technological progress of the country as a whole.

The objective of the index is to promote competitive decentralisation of innovation and research while also encouraging the states to increase their contribution to innovation and implementation of technology in the country as a whole.

Karnataka remains the leader in innovation, being home to top-class public institutions for scientific research such as IISc and providing employment to thousands of engineers in the numerous tech companies that have thrived sprouted across the state, especially in its capital city, also deemed as India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru.

Both public and private tech companies in Karnataka are actively involved in research and innovation on various fronts. Empowered by a knowledge-driven economy and a massive base of skilled manpower, Karnataka has remained the leader of technological innovation in the country. While the IT sector there is a major contributor to this, a favourable environment for start-ups and a strong entrepreneurial culture have together made the state a haven for those who ideate and innovate.

The index ranks Indian states on the basis of five different parameters: human capital, investment, knowledge workers, business environment, safety and legal environment. It also takes into account knowledge output and knowledge diffusion.

According to some experts, the drop in Odisha’s ranking could be because of the decreased ease of doing business in the state last year. While Odisha remains one of the most promising investment destinations in the country and has the potential to support large-scale projects and entrepreneurial ventures, the pandemic seems to have created roadblocks and difficulties in the form of prolonged shutdowns and lockdowns. While Odisha fared well on the human capital parameter, being ranked 10 in the index, it lost ground on the business environment parameter, as evident in its 16^th position.

Although the knowledge diffusion observed in the state was impressive, which helped it secure the 8^th rank among all states in the country, Odisha’s performance on the knowledge output parameter was not quite on par, with the state ranking 15 this time.

With its performance on various parameters of the index lacking in uniformity, Odisha could not maintain or improve its ranking this year. However, as the post-pandemic situation normalises, there is no reason why the state cannot regain lost ground, and rise higher on the index in coming years.