Sikkim tops Northeast & hill states in Niti Aayog innovation rankings

GUWAHATI: Sikkim has topped the northeast and hill states in the first-ever innovation ranking of states released by NITI Aayog in New Delhi on Thursday.


In the NITI Aayog's India Innovation Index (III) 2019, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are in the second and third positions respectively in the 'Northeast and Hill States' category, while Manipur is fourth, Tripura sixth, Arunachal Pradesh seventh, Assam eighth, Nagaland ninth, Mizoram 10th and Meghalaya 11th in the category.

The rankings were done in three categories - 'Major States', 'North East and Hill States' and 'Union Territories (UTs)/City and Small States'.

The index prepared in collaboration the Institute for Competitiveness was released by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. The innovation index has been developed in line with the Global Innovation Index.

Kumar expressed hope that "the India Innovation Index would create synergies between different stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem and India would shift to competitive good governance".

Kant said India has a unique opportunity among its myriad challenges to become the innovation leader in the world. "The study examines the innovation ecosystem of Indian states and union territories with an aim to create a holistic tool which can be used by policy-makers across the country to identify the challenges to be addressed and strengths to build while designing the economic growth policies for their regions," a Press Information Bureau statement said.