labour productivity etc. Here is a detailed fact-check of these claims. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) posted thefollowing infographic on its twitter handleon 25 July 2019, along with the caption ‘India takes a huge leap of 29 places to reach 52nd rank in 2019 from 81strank in 2015 in the Global Innovation Index. Under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi, India continues on improving innovation including ICT services, exports, patents and R&D.’ Here is a factcheck of this claim. Claim: India’s Global Innovation Index Ranking has improved from 81 in 2015 to 52 in 2019 with notable gains in patent applications, ICT services, exports, labour productivity, Gross Expenditure on R&D and Global R&D companies. Fact: The details of the Global Innovation Index Rankings reveals that India was ranked 81 in 2015 and 52 in 2019, but the ranking with respect to the individual indicators has not improved in all the cases. Moreover, this is not India’s best ranking ever. Hence, the above claim is Misleading. What is the Global Innovation Index? Global Innovation Index (GII) is an annualranking which measures the innovation performance of a country’s economy basedon innovation capabilities and results. GII is a joint effort among CornellUniversity, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and INSEAD. Thisyear, the 12th edition of the index was launched in India byPiyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry. The theme of GII this year isMedical Innovation. How is GII calculated? The overall GII is calculated as the simple average of Input Sub Indexscore and Output Sub Index Score. Innovation Input Sub Index is arrived at by takinginto consideration Institutions, Human Capital and Research, Infrastructure,Market Sophistication and Business Sophistication. Similarly, the InnovationOutput Sub Index Score is calculated based on Knowledge and Technology outputsand Creative outputs. Each of these seven pillars is further subdivided intothree sub pillars which have individual indicators associated with them basedon which GII is calculated. What is the difference between Global Innovation Index 2015 and 2019? The GII theme in 2015 was ‘EffectiveInnovation Policies for Development’- where an attempt was made to identifysuccessful policy intervention in 141 economies across the globe. The theme forthe GII 2019 is ‘Creating Healthy Lives- the Future of Medical Innovation’-where focus has been on improving healthcare through medical innovations, bothtechnological and non-technological in 129 economies. The 2015 GII wascalculated on the basis of 79 indicators whereas in 2019, a total of 80indicators were used. India’s position in the annual ranking since 2007 is in the followingchart. The high variation in the ranking can be attributed to the modificationsmade to the methodology for calculating the ranks. India’s best rank so far wasin 2007 when it was ranked 23 out of 107 countries. The GII ranking involved a different number of countries each year. Theranking was done for 107 countries in 2007 which increased to a high of 143 in2014. In 2019, a total of 129 countries were ranked. Has India’s ranking improved in the last few years with respect to the Individual Indicators? While India was ranked 81 in 2015, India’s rank in 2019 has gone up to52, an improvement of 29 positions. Notable gains in patent applications, ICTservices, exports, labour productivity, Gross Expenditure on R&D and GlobalR&D companies have been claimed to be made under the NDA government. Here,we take a closer look. What about Patent applications? The measure of ‘Patent families filed in more than two offices’ is anindicator of Business Sophistication while Patent applications by origin and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications by origin areindicators under the pillar of ‘Knowledge and Technology Output.’ Patent families filed in twooffices is the number of patentfamilies filed by residents in at least two offices (per billion PPP $GDP). Bypatent family, reference is made to a set of interrelated patent applicationsfiled in one or more countries/jurisdictions for the same invention. In 2015,the calculation was done including those filed in minimum three offices. Patent applications by origin (Domestic resident patent) refers to the number of resident patent applications filed at a givennational or regional patent office (per billion PPP$ GDP). PCT applications by origin is the numberof patent applications filed by residents (per billion PPP$ GDP) through theWIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). India’s Ranking: The ranking on the basis of number of PCT applications filed in India has increased from 49 in 2015 to 51 in 2019.