By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 21, 2021: KARNATAKA has maintained its top position as the most innovative state in Niti Aayog's second Innovation Index released on Wednesday.

Maharashtra went up the rankings to take second place, followed by Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Four southern states occupied the top five spots under the 'Major States' category this year.

"Karnataka's rank is attributable to its substantive number of venture capital deals, registered geographical indicators and information and communications technology exports. Karnataka's high Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow has also enhanced the innovation capabilities of the state," an official statement from Niti Aayog said.

Among the union territories, Delhi maintained its number one rank while Chandigarh grabbed the second place. In the 'Northeastern/Hill States' category, Himachal Pradesh was in first place while 2019 top performer, Sikkim, slipped to fourth spot.

"The India Innovation Index will create synergies between different stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, thus enabling India to shift to competitive good governance," said Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Mr Rajiv Kumar.

Speaking at the launch of the index, Mr Kumar said the index is a great beginning to improve the innovation environment in the country. He said the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor and Niti Aayog are working closely to create a seamless interaction among institutions that are there in any city to improve India's innovation ecosystem.

The India Innovation Index 2020 examines states and union territories through five enabler parameters of human capital, investment, knowledge workers, business environment, and safety and legal environment. The output is gauged through two performance parameters of knowledge output and knowledge diffusion.

"The India Innovation Index is a major step towards measuring innovation outcomes of states and facilitating optimal utilization of national and state mechanisms to realise the goal of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat," said Niti Aayog CEO Mr Amitabh Kant.

The last edition of the index, also its first, was released in October 2019.