India Rises to 36th in Global Tech Readiness Index, Shows Strong AI Potential
India has secured the 36th position out of 170 nations in the latest ‘Readiness for Frontier Technologies’ index released in the UNCTAD’s 2025 Technology and Innovation Report. This marks a significant improvement from its 48th rank in 2022, reflecting the country’s growing capabilities in areas like research, innovation, and digital transformation.
The index evaluates countries based on five key indicators: ICT deployment, skills, R&D activity, industrial capacity, and access to finance. While India ranks 3rd in R&D and 10th in industrial capacity, it still lags in ICT (99th), skills (113th), and finance (70th). The report highlights that nations like Bhutan, Morocco, and India are making progress in human capital due to longer schooling and a rise in high-skill employment.
India is among the few developing nations—alongside China, Brazil, and the Philippines—that are outperforming expectations based on GDP. This shows India’s strategic focus on technology readiness despite income-level limitations. In Artificial Intelligence (AI), India ranks 10th globally in private investment, attracting $1.4 billion in 2023, following global leaders like the U.S. and China.
The report emphasizes that AI could contribute $4.8 trillion to the global economy by 2033. However, AI infrastructure is currently concentrated in a few economies, with just 100 firms, mainly in the U.S. and China, accounting for 40% of global corporate R&D. AI could impact up to 40% of jobs worldwide, raising concerns about automation, but also offering opportunities for new industries and job creation if countries invest in reskilling and upskilling.
India is already showing promise in this area, with about 13 million developers contributing to AI and GenAI projects on platforms like GitHub. The report attributes this progress to government efforts such as the India AI Mission, which focuses on boosting AI education and innovation, especially in smaller cities. Institutions like IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur, and IISc Bengaluru are leading centres for AI research.
India is also highly specialised in nanotechnology and is one of the top developing countries in cloud infrastructure, along with Brazil and Singapore. The report concludes that India’s experience, alongside that of China and Brazil, illustrates how proactive policies, industry-academia collaboration, and focused investment can accelerate readiness for future technologies and inclusive economic growth.
Source: The Economic Times
