India & China are transforming the global geography of innovation

So is there a Swiss recipe for success? The small, landlocked country punches far above its weight in patenting, intellectual property receipts and manufacturing of high-tech products, according to the report.

Sweden is ranked second followed by the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Each year the index, produced by the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business, and graduate business school INSEAD, ranks the innovation performance of nearly 130 economies around the world.

This year, notably, the US re-entered the top five, having fallen to sixth in 2018. And Israel, at No. 10, became the first country from the Northern Africa and Western Asia region to break into the top 10.

In addition to ranking the world’s most innovative economies, the index highlights regional leaders in innovation (the US, Chile, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Israel and Singapore) and the best performers by income group (Switzerland, China, Vietnam and Rwanda).

Now established as a “world innovation leader”, China ranks highly for patents, industrial designs and trademarks by origin, as well as high-tech and creative goods exports. It’s also home to 18 of the index’s top 100 science and technology clusters – second only to the US.

India also consistently ranks among the best countries in the world for drivers of innovation such as ICT services exports, graduates in science and engineering, gross capital formation (a measure of economy-wide investments) and creative goods exports.

Indian tech hubs Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi also feature prominently in the top 100 list of science and technology clusters.

But political instability and conflict are strangling innovation in some parts of the world. The lowest-ranked countries in 2019 are Niger, Burundi and Yemen.

Despite a slowing global economy, low productivity growth and US-China trade tensions, the outlook is positive for innovation, which, according to the report, is “blossoming” around the world, particularly in Asia.

“Never in history have so many scientists worldwide laboured at solving the most pressing global scientific challenges,” the report says.

But on a more cautionary note, it warns of looming pressures from trade disruptions and protectionism, and emphasizes the importance of government policy to encouraging innovation.

The rise on the index of economic powerhouses like China and India has “transformed the geography of innovation and this reflects deliberate policy action to promote innovation,” he says in a media release for the launch of the 2019 index in India.