NEW DELHI: Kerala dropped to the 8th position in the third edition of the NITI Aayog's India Innovation Index. The state had secured 5th position in the second edition, 2020. Prepared by NITI Aayog and the Institute for Competitiveness, the India Innovation Index is a comprehensive tool for the evaluation and development of the country's innovation ecosystem. It ranks the states and the union territories on their innovation performance to build healthy competition amongst them.

The report points out that Kerala, which has performed well in the education and health sectors, should show good performance in other areas as well. Kerala, which performed averagely in other categories, scored poorly in the category of security and law enforcement.

Karnataka, Manipur and Chandigarh on top
Karnataka topped in the 'Major states' category with a score of 18.01. Telangana (17.66) and Haryana (16.35) secured the second and third positions respectively. Kerala's score is 13.67.

Manipur is leading the 'North East and Hill States' category, and Chandigarh is the top performer in the 'Union Territories and City States' category,