India Ranks 10 slots below in Innovation Index: CSIR

KOLKATA: ‘ Global Innovation Index’ rankings reveal that India is slipping.

The country has fallen 10 ranks down from being No. 66 in 2013 to No. 76 now, revealed eminent Indian scientist and former CSIR director general Raghunath Anant Mashelkar. Dr Mashelkar disclosed this while delivering a lecture on ‘Reinventing India As An Innovation Nation’ on Monday at International Management Institute Kolkata.

Elaborating further, Dr Mashelkar said, the fact that India has slipped 10 ranks is a matter of concern and could possibly be because of the indicators used in global innovation index. “We have to move to the top 10 in order to be able to move forward, because innovation-led economic growth and innovation-led competitiveness is going to be the key in future,” he added. Incidentally, Dr Mashelkar is on the advisory board of Global Innovation Index.

He also stressed the need for validating traditional practices, such as ayurveda with modern science instead of just going by ‘blind faith’. “The scientific method of how things work and the way things work … as long as we are combining modern science and modern methods of validation … we should not go by blind faith,” Dr Mashelkar said.