A recent report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) revealed that India, China, and Thailand are among countries that have the most hostile environments for driving innovation. On the other hand, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom are listed as the countries that have done the most for global innovation.

According to Forbes, the report is concluded from selected factors in regard to domestic innovation that has a positive and negative global impact. The report assessed 27 factors in total, which are divided into two categories. Contributions indicators are assessed factors that have positive impacts on innovation while detractions indicators bring negative impacts.

The report assessed 14 contributions indicators, including supportive tax systems and investment in R&D technology and human capital. And the remaining 13 detractions indicators involved weak protection of intellectual property, as well as balkanized production and consumer markets. Overall, the study assessed the impact of the countries' innovation policies on the global innovation system.

The result revealed that the nations with the greatest support towards global innovation are Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the Netherlands. On the other hand, countries like Argentina, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Ukraine stood at the bottom of the list of countries that support global innovations. It means, the countries' policies did little support towards global innovations, and even might detract the countries from innovations.

Among 56 countries that were involved in the study, China stood at the 44th place of the countries that support global innovations.Thailand is also on the bottom five at the 53rd position. India ends up in an even lower position at the 54th, followed by Indonesia and Argentina as the top bottom.

Quartz elaborated why India, a country known for its flourishing startups, ended up in a very low rank in the study. The key reason is that compared to other countries, India spends the least on primary and secondary education, at just $1,248 per student. The small number of researchers in the country at 15 per 100,000 people also affected the score given to India.

ITIF stated that global innovation is very important for economic growth and social progress not only in the given country but also around the world. Their report also pointed out some recommendations, that global communities need to develop stronger mechanisms to encourage nations to do more contributing and less distracting. 

The study is expected to give more understanding on the impacts of countries' policies on local and global innovation. It could also inspire and inform each country what can be improved to achieve more innovation that supports economic growth and social progress for the country and the world.