India at 105th place in ADB’s Knowledge Economy Index

Developed nations are far more knowledge-driven than the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The ADB report, using an index developed by the World Bank, shows that average the Knowledge Economy Index score for the Asia-Pacific region was 4.39, compared with 8.25 in the case of Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) countries.

India, with a score of 3.06, is at the 109th place among 145 countries. What’s interesting is that among various factors such as economic incentive regime, innovation, education, and information and communications technology (ICT), India’s highest ranking is in the area of innovation, a news report said. “Popularly known as ‘jugaad’ innovation or frugal innovation, the ADB report lists several examples of low-cost innovative techniques that have emerged in rural India.”

While India is known for outsourcing IT services, its own use of ICT is far behind that of developed economies. Apart from fixing weak primary education, restrictive policies on labor and the general difficulty of doing business in India, a lot more needs to be done by the government to facilitate the transition to a knowledge-based economy.