India Ranks 38th of 139 Economies in the Global Innovation Index 2026, First in Its Income Group and First in the World for ICT Services Exports

India is 38th among the 139 economies ranked in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2026, published on 29 September 2026. WIPO’s own country profile places India first among the 36 lower-middle-income economies and first among the 11 economies of Central and Southern Asia. On the separate output side of the index, which measures what innovation produces, India is 25th, up from 32nd a year earlier.

The ranking draws on 79 indicators, from research spending and skilled employment to high-tech trade and the licensing of intellectual property. It is the 19th edition, and WIPO says it is submitted to an independent statistical audit by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Singapore lead the table. China is 10th.

Same rank as 2025, with a better output score

India was also 38th in 2025. The profile lists the two years side by side and adds a caution of its own: data availability and changes to the index model affect year-on-year comparisons. India’s 2026 rank carries a statistical confidence interval of 34th to 39th, against 37th to 41st in 2025.

Under the same overall rank, the two halves of the index moved. India rose from 52nd to 49th on innovation inputs and from 32nd to 25th on outputs. In the output half, the “knowledge and technology outputs” pillar (patents, scientific articles, unicorn valuation, high-tech and ICT services exports among its indicators) went from 22nd in 2025 to 15th in 2026. That is India’s best pillar.

The profile says India produces more innovation outputs than its level of investment would predict. WIPO’s release also counts India as an overperformer relative to its income, a status held for 16 consecutive years and shared with Viet Nam as the longest run. Twenty-one economies are in that group this year, four more than in 2025.

Seven pillars, all above the group averages

The index groups its indicators into seven pillars. India’s 2026 ranks are:

• Knowledge and technology outputs: 15th
• Market sophistication (credit, investment, trade and market scale): 35th
• Creative outputs: 43rd
• Human capital and research: 54th
• Institutions: 60th
• Infrastructure: 62nd
• Business sophistication: 63rd

WIPO’s profile states that India scores above the lower-middle-income group average in every pillar and above the Central and Southern Asia average in every pillar. The widest gap is in knowledge and technology outputs, where India scores 41.76 against 16.59 for the income group and 20.63 for the region. The top ten economies score 55.83 on average there.

First in the world on ICT services exports

Of the indicators that make up the index, WIPO’s strengths table gives India first place on ICT services exports measured as a share of total trade. ICT stands for information and communication technology. India held first place on the same indicator in the 2025 profile too.

The next entries on the 2026 strengths list are:

• Domestic market scale, in purchasing-power dollars: 3rd
• Late-stage venture capital deal count as a share of the global total: 4th
• Finance for startups and scaleups: 8th
• Unicorn valuation as a share of GDP: 10th
• Domestic industry diversification: 11th
• Labour productivity growth: 12th
• Cultural and creative services exports as a share of trade: 12th
• Gross capital formation as a share of GDP: 15th
• Global corporate R&D investors, top three, in million US dollars: 16th

The history of the Indian IT export business is told in India’s IT services industry, from TCS in 1968 to the export and workforce numbers.

Four clusters in the world’s top 100

WIPO also ranks the world’s science and technology clusters. Four Indian clusters are in the 2026 top 100:

• Bengaluru, 25th, with digital communication as its top patent field and chemistry as its top academic subject
• Delhi, 27th, with computer technology and engineering
• Mumbai, 43rd, with digital communication and chemistry
• Chennai, 79th, with transport and engineering

A year earlier the four stood at 21st (Bengaluru), 26th (Delhi), 46th (Mumbai) and 84th (Chennai). Mumbai and Chennai moved up in 2026, and Bengaluru and Delhi each moved down a little. A separate WIPO table ranks clusters by intensity, and there Bengaluru is 85th, Delhi 96th, Chennai 97th and Mumbai 98th.

India’s role in the deep-science startup count

This year’s special chapter maps more than 30,000 deep-science startups, firms that turn research in areas such as semiconductors, robotics, quantum computing, life sciences, space and advanced materials into products. WIPO and Dealroom built the tracker for the report. The press release says the number of such firms in Central and Southern Asia has grown 118 per cent since 2020, the fastest of any region, “driven by India”. On deep-science startup counts, WIPO names India among the five leaders of the middle-income group, with Türkiye, Malaysia, Brazil and South Africa.

Indian programmes behind those firms are covered in India’s recognised startups, the unicorns and the Fund of Funds, the National Quantum Mission and the semiconductor fab race.

The long climb since 2015

The Economic Survey 2025-26, tabled by the Finance Minister on 29 January 2026, charts India’s index rank over the years: 81st in 2015 and 66th in 2019. WIPO’s profile gives the later years, 48th in 2020, 46th in 2021, 40th in 2022 and 2023, 39th in 2024 and 38th in both 2025 and 2026.

Startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade grew from about 500 in 2016 to more than 2 lakh (200,000) in 2025, the Survey reports. It says the Production Linked Incentive scheme had realised over Rs 2 lakh crore of investment by September 2025, and that India ranked 4th in trademark filings, 6th in patent filings and 7th in industrial design filings worldwide in 2024. Patent applications filed in India nearly doubled between FY20 and FY25. On research output, the Survey cites Department of Science and Technology data placing India 3rd globally in scholarly publications, up from 7th in 2010.

Where the ranks are lower

WIPO’s weaknesses table is short and specific. India is 83rd on researchers per million people, 98th on knowledge-intensive employment, 108th on net foreign direct investment inflows as a share of GDP and 115th on tertiary inbound mobility. The three lowest pillars are institutions (60th), infrastructure (62nd) and business sophistication (63rd). WIPO’s Global Innovation Tracker, a companion set of trend indicators, counts 9 improving and 3 worsening for India over the short term. Scientific publications grew 4.4 per cent between 2024 and 2025, and international patent filings from India fell 32.4 per cent.

The Economic Survey puts India’s gross expenditure on research and development at 0.64 per cent of GDP, against 3.48 per cent for the United States, 2.43 per cent for China and 4.91 per cent for South Korea. Business supplies 41 per cent of India’s research spending, against 75 to 79 per cent in those three countries. The government’s answer in the Survey is the Rs 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation Fund, announced with Rs 20,000 crore for FY26 and a six-year outlay, alongside the Anusandhan National Research Foundation, set up under a 2023 Act.