India has for the first time made it to the top 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020. India has moved up four positions since 2019 to become the third-most innovative lower-middle-income economy in the world, according to the report. India, at 48, also retains the highest rank in the central and southern Asia region.
India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as information and communications technology services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering, and research and development (R&D)- intensive global companies. The report has attributed the improvement to universities, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology in Bombay and Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, besides its top scientific publications, stating that India is the lower middle-income economy with the highest innovation quality.