New Delhi, June 15 (KNN) To help India improve its innovation ranking in the “Global Innovation Index”, report prepared by the task force on innovation was released today.

The Global Innovation Index (GII) aims to capture the multi-dimensional facets of innovation.

In the Global Innovation Index 2017, India climbed 21 spots in innovation ranking since 2015; moves up to 60th rank in 2017.

This improvement in India’s rank came after 5 years of continuous drop in its ranking, Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

Recognizing India’s potential to reach great heights in innovation and creativity, a Task Force on Innovation was set up on the directions of Nirmala Sitharaman, the Commerce & Industry Minister.

The Task Force on Innovation had the mandate of assessing India’s position as an innovative country, suggest measures to enhance the innovation ecosystem in India and thus improve India’s ranking in the GII.

The Team, comprising of government officials and experts from private organisations & academia, has come up with its report on “Global Innovation Index: An Indian Perspective” which gives specific measures the measures to improve India’s rank.

The report comprises recommendations and suggestions to improve India’s rank on all 82 indicators mentioned in GII 2016 report. It also points out the national and international models, programs or schemes which may be adopted and/ or replicated and scaled up to further improve India’s position in a particular indicator.

In addition to this, the report analyses the methodology used in GII-2016 and calls for a need to re-examine and suitably modify the methodology in order to reflect true position of countries.

For MSMEs, the report recommended that program like the ‘Small Business Innovation and Research Program’ (SBIR) in USA that encourages the small business and non-profit institutions in USA to engage in R&D that can be commercialized, can be adopted in India targeting the MSMEs engaging them in R&D for boosting commercialization.

Adopting Program like the ‘Small Business Technology Transfer’ (STTR) in USA will provide funding opportunities in R&D to start ups and will bridge the gap between the innovators and the research institutes in India.

The report suggested that schemes like Start-up Intellectual Property Protection and Scheme for “Building Awareness on Intellectual Property Rights” (IPR) for the MSMEs under National Manufacturing Competitiveness Program (NMCP) need to be given a boost and strengthened further.

SIPP scheme, the report suggested, should be extended to MSMEs and the facilitators under the scheme be also allowed to provide services to MSMEs.

It stressed centers like Patent information centres (PIC) by DST and Intellectual property Information Centre (IPFC) by MSME should be strengthened and further replicated in all the districts; IP Cells need to be established in all Universities in India.

The report highlighted that IP protection should be increased in India. Awareness and sensitization amongst SME’s and MSME’s should be conducted for recognition and filing of IP’s.

It suggested awareness must be created amongst MSMEs and Startups to file for trademarks. To this end, the 50% rebate provided in the Trade Marks Rules, 2017 to MSMEs and start-ups should give a fillip to their filings.

Also, IPFCs and PICs should expand their reach to SMEs and MSMEs to promote filing of trademarks.

On industrial designs by origin, the report recommended that awareness regarding identification, recognition and registration of Industrial Designs amongst SMEs, MSMEs and Start-ups, should be promoted.

IPR protection plays a key role in gaining competitive advantage in terms of technological gains for achieving higher economic growth in a market driven economy. It is felt that IPR requires greater understanding and attention by the industry, particularly the MSME sector in India.

The Full Report on “Global Innovation Index: An Indian Perspective” can be viewed at:

http://dipp.nic.in/reports/task-force-innovation-report-global-innovation-index-indian-perspective

(KNN Bureau)