UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 77 of 150

Correct — D, Karnataka. The India Innovation Index was released for the first time on 18 October 2019 by NITI Aayog together with the Institute for Competitiveness. Karnataka finished first, ahead of Tamil Nadu in second place and Maharashtra in third among the major States. The index is built on two broad dimensions — 'Enablers', which measure the inputs a State supplies to innovation, and 'Performance', which measures what actually comes out of them. Karnataka topped the overall ranking and also led the Performance dimension, while Maharashtra scored best on Enablers. That split is the interesting part of the result: the State with the best innovation inputs was not the State converting them into the most output, and Karnataka won because it did well on both sides and outstandingly on output.

• (a)Tamil Nadu — Tamil Nadu ranked second among the major States in the India Innovation Index 2019 — a strong showing, and the most tempting wrong answer, but not the top. A candidate who remembers only 'a southern State led it' has a one-in-two chance here, which is exactly the margin the paper-setter wanted.
• (b)Maharashtra — Maharashtra was third overall among the major States. It did top one of the two dimensions — 'Enablers', the input side covering things like human capital, investment and the business environment — so it is genuinely associated with a first place, just not the first place the question asks about. Mixing up a dimension topper with the overall topper is the specific error this option is fishing for.
• (c)Haryana — Haryana was one of the major States ranked in the 2019 index but was not among the top three; the top three among the major States were Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in that order. Haryana is a plausible-sounding option because of its high per-capita income and NCR industrial belt, but per-capita income is not what this index measures.

The India Innovation Index is NITI Aayog's attempt to do for innovation what the SDG India Index does for the Sustainable Development Goals — turn a diffuse policy goal into a comparable score across States and Union Territories so that governments can be ranked, benchmarked and nudged. Its structure is the standard composite-index design: a set of 'Enabler' pillars measuring the inputs a State provides to innovation, and a set of 'Performance' pillars measuring the knowledge and value that come out. States are compared within like-with-like groups rather than all thrown together, so that a small hill State is not judged against Maharashtra. The first edition was prepared with the Institute for Competitiveness and released on 18 October 2019.

This is pure current-affairs recall from the year of the exam, so build the retrieval hook rather than trying to reason it out: first edition, October 2019, NITI Aayog plus the Institute for Competitiveness, Karnataka on top. The useful discipline for a composite index is to memorise three things and no more — who publishes it, what the top of the table looked like, and what the index actually measures. The trap in this particular question is that all four options are genuinely well-performing States, and two of them (Tamil Nadu at second, Maharashtra topping the Enablers dimension) sit right next to the correct answer in any summary a student would have read.

• The India Innovation Index was released in its first edition on 18 October 2019 by NITI Aayog with the Institute for Competitiveness.
• Karnataka ranked first among the major States; Tamil Nadu second and Maharashtra third.
• The index is organised around two dimensions — Enablers (the inputs to innovation) and Performance (the output).
• Karnataka also led the Performance dimension, while Maharashtra was the best performer on Enablers.
• NITI Aayog is the Government of India's policy think-tank, created by a Cabinet resolution effective 1 January 2015 to replace the Planning Commission; index-building and State benchmarking are among its core functions.
• Present-day note for a 2026 reader: NITI Aayog has published later editions of the India Innovation Index since 2019, so check the current edition rather than assuming the 2019 table still stands.

• Confusing the topper of one dimension with the topper of the index — Maharashtra led 'Enablers' in 2019 while Karnataka led the index overall and the 'Performance' dimension.
• Confusing the India Innovation Index (NITI Aayog, domestic, State-wise) with the Global Innovation Index (an international ranking of countries).
• Carrying a ranking forward across editions. A State that topped the 2019 index need not top a later one, and index editions are not always methodologically comparable.

UPPSC asks 'according to index X, which State is at the top / in which category does Uttar Pradesh fall' — a single recalled cell from a recent report; UPSC almost never asks the rank and instead asks which institution publishes the index or what it measures, so learn both the topper and the publisher for every index in the news.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The India Innovation Index is released by NITI Aayog in association with which of the following?

  • (a)World Economic Forum
  • (b)Institute for Competitiveness
  • (c)Confederation of Indian Industry
  • (d)World Intellectual Property Organization

  Answer(b) Institute for Competitiveness — the first edition of the India Innovation Index was released on 18 October 2019 by NITI Aayog with the Institute for Competitiveness as its knowledge partner.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The India Innovation Index scores States on two broad dimensions. Which one of the following pairs correctly names them?

  • (a)Access and Usage
  • (b)Enablers and Performance
  • (c)Inputs and Outcomes
  • (d)Preparedness and Resilience

  Answer(b) Enablers and Performance — 'Enablers' capture the inputs a State supplies to innovation and 'Performance' captures the output; in 2019 Maharashtra led the Enablers dimension while Karnataka led Performance and the overall index.