The construction of the India Innovation Index, following the Global Innovation Index, by the NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness, is a timely initiative that gained significant traction in academic and policy circles. However, it is shown that III could be made more robust by strengthening its analytical foundations by characterising India’s innovation system from a southern perspective and locating more appropriate indicators that capture the process of innovation at the national and subnational levels in India.
