India has joined the group of top 50 countries in the global innovation index for the first time, moving up four places to the 48th rank and keeping the top position among the nations in central and southern Asia, a PTI report stated.

The statement said India has become the third most innovative lower-middle-income economy in the world, thanks to newly available indicators and improvements in various areas of the GII.

India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as ICT (Information and Communication Technology) services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering, and R&D-intensive global companies.

"Thanks to universities such as the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and Delhi and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, and its top scientific publications, India is the lower middle-income economy with the highest innovation quality," it said.

According to the Global Innovation Index (GII) list, 2020 released jointly by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University, and INSEAD Business School on Wednesday, the rankings show stability at the top but a gradual "eastward shift in the locus of innovation" as Asian economies like China, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam have advanced considerably in the innovation ranking over the years. Switzerland, Sweden, the US, the UK, and the Netherlands lead the innovation ranking, and the top 10 positions are dominated by high-income countries, the report added.