NITI Aayog Launches India S&T Scoreboard for States and UTs

NITI Aayog has launched the India S&T Scoreboard, an interactive platform that places the science and technology performance of every State and Union Territory on a single dashboard. It was unveiled on 3 November 2026 at the Civil Services Officers' Institute on KG Marg in New Delhi by Ashok Kumar Lahiri, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog. The platform is meant to put policymaking in the sector on an evidence footing and to let States measure themselves against one another. It can be reached at www.sts.niti.gov.in.

What the dashboard holds

Data on research and innovation had until now been scattered across many sources, which made it hard for a State to judge where it stood. The Scoreboard gathers that material in one place. On the ecosystem side it covers higher education institutions, research and development institutions, deep tech startups and incubators. On the output side it carries research publications and patents. It does not stop at the volume of output: it reports indicators of research quality, impact, collaboration and open access, arranged by priority research area and across three sectors, namely academia, government R&D laboratories and industry. Trends are shown over the years, so a State can follow its own progress. Two States or Union Territories can be placed side by side, and each has a detailed profile listing its policies and best practices.

Who spoke at the launch

• Ashok Kumar Lahiri, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, said further progress in the sector needs a more active role by the States, and that the platform, guided by cooperative and competitive federalism, will help them spot strengths and gaps and learn from each other.
• Vivek Kumar Singh, Senior Adviser, NITI Aayog, set out the context and said the platform was built to capture quality, impact and collaboration rather than mere volume.
• Umesh V. Waghmare, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, pointed to the part played by State S&T Councils and State universities in widening the research base.
• T. Srinivasa Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said local scientific capacity is essential if States are to use forecasts, early warnings and ocean sector opportunities.
• Abhay Karandikar, Member (S&T), NITI Aayog, said sound policy must rest on reliable and comparable evidence.

After the unveiling

A walkthrough of the platform followed, along with a technical session on its methodology and data sources. Guests from State governments and academia gave suggestions for developing it further, and State representatives said it would help their planning and the building of institutional capacity and skilled manpower in the sector. The discussion held that a comparable State-level evidence base will matter for the country's march towards Viksit Bharat@2047.