Fact Checking Government claims on the Global Innovation Index
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 22, 2019
An infographic published by the BJP made claims about India’s improved
Global Innovation Index ranking. The infographic also makes claims about
notable gains in patent applications, ICT services, exports,
labour productivity etc. Here is a detailed fact-check of these claims.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) posted thefollowing infographic on its twitter handleon 25 July 2019,  along with the caption ‘India takes a
huge leap of 29 places to reach 52nd rank in 2019 from 81strank
in 2015 in the Global Innovation Index. Under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi, India continues
on improving innovation including ICT services, exports, patents and R&D.’ Here is a factcheck of this claim.
Claim: India’s Global Innovation Index Ranking   has improved from 81 in 2015 to 52 in 2019 with notable gains in patent   applications, ICT services, exports, labour productivity, Gross Expenditure   on R&D and Global R&D companies.
Fact: The details of the Global Innovation Index   Rankings reveals that India was ranked 81 in 2015 and 52 in 2019, but the   ranking with respect to the individual indicators has not improved in all the   cases. Moreover, this is not India’s best ranking ever. Hence, the above claim is Misleading.
What is the
Global Innovation Index?
Global Innovation Index (GII) is an annualranking which measures the innovation performance of a country’s economy basedon innovation capabilities and results. GII is a joint effort among CornellUniversity, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and INSEAD. Thisyear, the 12th edition of the index was launched in India byPiyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry. The theme of GII this year isMedical Innovation.
How is GII
calculated?
The overall GII is calculated as the simple average of Input Sub Indexscore and Output Sub Index Score. Innovation Input Sub Index is arrived at by takinginto consideration Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure,Market Sophistication and Business Sophistication. Similarly, the InnovationOutput Sub Index Score is calculated based on Knowledge and Technology outputsand Creative outputs. Each of these seven pillars is further subdivided intothree sub pillars which have individual indicators associated with them basedon which GII is calculated.
What is the
difference between Global Innovation Index 2015 and 2019?
The GII theme in 2015 was ‘EffectiveInnovation Policies for Development’- where an attempt was made to identifysuccessful policy intervention in 141 economies across the globe. The theme forthe GII 2019 is ‘Creating Healthy Lives- the Future of Medical Innovation’-where focus has been on improving healthcare through medical innovations, bothtechnological and non-technological in 129 economies. The 2015 GII wascalculated on the basis of 79 indicators whereas in 2019, a total of 80indicators were used.
India’s position in the annual ranking since 2007 is in the followingchart. The high variation in the ranking can be attributed to the modificationsmade to the methodology for calculating the ranks. India’s best rank so far wasin 2007 when it was ranked 23 out of 107 countries.
The GII ranking involved a different number of countries each year. Theranking was done for 107 countries in 2007 which increased to a high of 143 in2014. In 2019, a total of 129 countries were ranked.
Has India’s
ranking improved in the last few years with respect to the Individual
Indicators?
While India was ranked 81 in 2015, India’s rank in 2019 has gone up to52, an improvement of 29 positions. Notable gains in patent applications, ICTservices, exports, labour productivity, Gross Expenditure on R&D and GlobalR&D companies have been claimed to be made under the NDA government. Here,we take a closer look.
What about Patent
applications?
The measure of ‘Patent families filed in more than two offices’ is anindicator of Business Sophistication while Patent applications by origin and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications by origin areindicators under the pillar of ‘Knowledge and Technology Output.’
Patent families filed in twooffices is the number of patentfamilies filed by residents in at least two offices (per billion PPP $GDP). Bypatent family, reference is made to a set of interrelated patent applicationsfiled in one or more countries/jurisdictions for the same invention. In 2015,the calculation was done including those filed in minimum three offices.
Patent applications by origin (Domestic resident patent) refers to the number of resident patent applications filed at a givennational or regional patent office (per billion PPP$ GDP).
PCT applications by origin is the numberof patent applications filed by residents (per billion PPP$ GDP) through theWIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
India’s Ranking: The ranking on the basis of number of PCT
applications filed in India has increased from 49 in 2015 to 51 in 2019. Further,
difference in methodology with respect to patent families could have influenced
the ranking. The ranking with respect to the Domestic Resident Patent has
improved by one position and the ranking in patent families filed has improved
by 6, from 52 in 2015 to 46 in 2019.
Information and
Communication Technologies services
The report also highlighted the Government’s online service ande-participation under Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) asstrengths. At the same time, access and use of ICTs have been identified asweaknesses.
How are these indicators are calculated?
Use of ICT– weights Percentage of individuals using the Internet; Fixed (wired)-broadbandInternet subscriptions per 100 inhabitants and active mobile-broadbandsubscriptions per 100 inhabitants at 33% each.
ICT Access– weights Fixed telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants; Mobilecellular telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants; International Internetbandwidth (bit/s) per Internet user; Percentage of households with a computerand Percentage of households with Internet access at 20% each.
Government’s Online
Service Index– Measures government’suse of ICT in delivering public services at national level with the help of anOnline Service Questionnaire which consisted of a list of 140 questionsassessed by UN volunteers.
Online e-participation- calculated as E-Participation Index, it reflects the e-participationmechanisms that are deployed by the government as compared to all othercountries.
India’s ranking in each of these categoriesin 2015 & 2019 is as follows.
India’s Ranking: India’s ranking has improved substantially in
all of these indicators. The greatest improvement was seen in Government Online
Service where the ranking improved from 57 in 2015 to 9 in 2019. Even in
e-participation, ranking has improved from 40 in 2015 to 15 in 2019. However,
India’s rank is still above 100 in both ICT use & ICT access.
Exports
From the report, there are four main export types which serve as indicatorsin the Index. These are high-tech exports and ICT service exports which fallunder the pillar of ‘Knowledge and Technology Outputs’ and Cultural andCreative services exports and Creative good exports which fall under the pillarof ‘Creative Outputs’. The definition of each of these export types is thefollowing.
High-tech exports- net high-techexports as the percentage of total trade have been considered in the ranking.It is calculated as high-technology exportsminus re-exports as percentage of total trade.
ICT services exports is found out as the Telecommunications, computers, and informationservices exports as percentage of total trade
Cultural and Creative services exports is calculated interms of percentage of total trade and includes information services,advertising, market research, cultural and recreational services and more.
Creative good exports are determinedas the total value of creative goods exports, netof re-exports (current US$) over total trade. Creative goods are those whichare defined by UNESCO Framework in 2006 which include arts and craft and cultural goods.
India’s ranking in 2015 & 2019 each ofthese categories is as follows
India’s Ranking: India’s ranking has improved in the ‘Cultural
& creative services exports’ from 59 in 2015 to 39 in 2019. In the other
categories, India’s rank has deteriorated. India has retained the top position
in the ICT exports.
Labour Productivity
The labour productivity is be measured from ‘growthrate of GDP per person engaged’. It is defined as output per unit of labourinput. India was ranked 38 in 2015. In 2018
and 2019, labour productivity has improved and India’s ranking is 4.
Gross expenditure
on Research and Development
Calculated as the total domestic intramural expenditure (Totalexpenditure for R&D within a statistical unit or sector of economy during aspecific period) on research and development during a given period as apercentage of GDP, the indicator is used to determine the performance ofR&D in a country. India was ranked 42 in 2015, 52 in 2018 and 50 in 2019. Hence, India’s rank has deteriorated in this
aspect compared to 2015.
Global Research
and Development Companies
This indicator was not available in the 2015 report. In the 2019 report,India has been ranked 15 based on the average expenditure by the top 3companies in Research and Development. The 2018 report ranked India at 18. Thus, there has been an improvement in
India’s rank.
Overall, while India’s rank has improved, ithas not improved on all the indicators and this is not India’s best rank ever.