Sri Lanka has dropped 12 places to be ranked 101st  in the latest Global Innovation Index 2020 from last year’s 89th rank with a score of 23.78 on a 0-100 scale, 100 being the most innovative.

Published annually since 2007, the GII is said to be a leading benchmarking tool for business executives, policy makers and others seeking insight into the state of innovation around the world. The core of the GII report consists of a ranking of world economies’ innovation capabilities and results.

Recognising the key role of innovation as a driver of economic growth and prosperity, and the need for a broad vision of innovation applicable to developed and emerging economies, the GII includes indicators that go beyond the traditional measures of innovation, such as the level of research and development.

Sri Lanka along with 10 other countries performing at expectations before is now performing below expectations for their level of development. In 2019, these eleven economies were already at the border of performing below expectations and swap out of the performing-at-expectations group, the report said.

Sri Lanka performed poorly in sub-indices of Institutions (119th) Human Capital and Research (119th) while showing strength in Infrastructure (78th), Business Sophistication (70th) and Knowledge and Technology Outputs (68th). The country ranked 118th in Market Sophistication sub index, and 100th in Creative Outputs.

Regional countries like India and Iran succeeded in improving their respective rankings while showing excellent performance in relevant areas in 2020 index. In the Central and Southern Asia, India became top 50 best performers in the world after getting the rank of 48, the highest rank in the region, followed by Iran with ranking of 67. Pakistan is not even top 100 economies in the world this year.

In the upper-middle income group, China (14th), Malaysia (33rd), and Bulgaria (37th) had held the top three positions since 2016. Thailand (44th) remains the 4th economy in this group, while Romania (46th) ranks 5th (up from 8th last year). The Russian Federation (47th) keeps its 6th position among upper-middle income economies since 2017.

Among the lower middle-income group, Vietnam (42nd) is at the top, followed by Ukraine (45th, up by 2) and India (48th, up by 4). The Philippines (50th, up by 4) moves up into the 4th position, In East Asia, and Oceania, Indonesia (85th) joins the top 10, ranked 9th.

The United Republic of Tanzania tops the low-income group (88th), gaining nine positions since last year and two positions within its income group. Rwanda (91st) goes down to 2nd place, which it held in 2017 and 2018. On 95th position, Nepal ranks 3rd (up from 6th last year). Two economies enter the low-income group top 10: Madagascar (115th) and Mozambique (124th), while Senegal (102nd) and Ethiopia are at 127th rank.