Digital Nations & Super Cities
Tholons Releases 2021 Global Innovation IndexTM
Innovation at Scale!
SAN FRANCISCO, LONDON, SINGAPORE, BANGALORE, March 3, 2021 – Tholons, today, released the “Tholons Global Innovation Index 2021TM” (TGII), its flagship research report and ranking of the Top 50 “Digital Nations” and Top 100 “Super Cities”. Ankita Vashistha, CEO, Tholons says “Artificial intelligence, innovation, digital marketing and tech-based entrepreneurship will fuel the economies in this decade. Untapped power of women entrepreneurship, engagement and empowerment is leading the way like never before”. Tholons Global Innovation Index (TGII) is published annually and is the industry’s premier ranking of the Top 50 “Digital Nations” and Top 100 “Super Cities”.
Digital innovation in emerging technologies, such as cloud, AI, big data and analytics, which saw unprecedented demand during the pandemic, will sustain even in the coming decade. There is a need for enterprises to re-imagine new model for personalization, that emphasizes customer agency. Organizations will need more active engagement strategies, if they want to thrive and succeed. Leading businesses are adopting “human-AI” collaboration. As social distancing becomes the norm, in many industries, robots are transitioning faster than expected from regulated environments to unregulated environments. Corporations and governments are looking for more and newer “contact-less” solutions.
Top 20 Digital Nations 2021
| RANK 2021 | RANK 2020 | Digital Nations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | United States |
| 2 | 1 | India |
| 3 | 4 | Canada |
| 4 | 35 | Germany |
| 5 | 9 | Singapore |
| 6 | 16 | Australia |
| 7 | 14 | Ireland |
| 8 | 6 | United Kingdom |
| 9 | – | Norway |
| 10 | – | Sweden |
| 11 | 38 | Spain |
| 12 | – | Finland |
| 13 | 8 | Mexico |
| 14 | 15 | Poland |
| 15 | 2 | Brazil |
| 16 | 39 | Estonia |
| 17 | 24 | South Korea |
| 18 | 5 | Philippines |
| 19 | – | France |
| 20 | 17 | South Africa |
Top 20 Super Cities 2021
| RANK 2021 | RANK 2020 | Super Cities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Toronto |
| 2 | 9 | Singapore |
| 3 | 1 | Bangalore |
| 4 | 30 | San Francisco |
| 5 | 5 | Dublin |
| 6 | 3 | Sao Paulo |
| 7 | 27 | London |
| 8 | 2 | Manila |
| 9 | 4 | Mumbai |
| 10 | 29 | New York |
| 11 | 24 | Sydney |
| 12 | 7 | Delhi (NCR) |
| 13 | – | Melbourne |
| 14 | – | Tokyo |
| 15 | 70 | Seoul |
| 16 | 35 | Belfast |
| 17 | 18 | Kuala Lumpur |
| 18 | – | Amsterdam |
| 19 | 34 | San Antonio, Texas |
| 20 | 11 | Kraków |
- New Entrants to Top 10 Digital Nations: Germany, Australia, Ireland, Norway and Sweden.
- Top 5 Super Cities: Toronto, Singapore, Bangalore, San Francisco and Dublin.
- Top 10 Super Cities New Entrants: San Francisco, London and New York.
- New Entrants in Top 100 Super Cities: There are 13 cities who have shown exemplary movement in embracing digital and being relevant to the globalization of innovation. These cities are Copenhagen, Busan, Incheon, Helsinki, Brisbane, Penang, Riga, Auckland, Adelaide, Rotterdam, Vilnius, Wroclaw and Oslo making in Top 100 Super Cities.
- Toronto emerges as No.1 in the TGII Top 100 Super Cities. Bangalore had maintained the No.1 position from last 15 years. This is the first time that Bangalore is taking a step back to No.3 in TGII Index. This year’s report has a significant emphasis on disruptive innovation and women diversity.
AI driven intelligent automation solutions, from Tholons (www.tholons.com), and the leading consulting and technology companies are being deployed by visionary businesses. We are living in a dynamic and exciting world. Let’s go out there and re-design the experience, embrace innovators and drive change. You, as a leader have the fiduciary responsibility to your employees, customers, families and your businesses to act NOW!
Avinash Vashistha, Chairman, Tholons, says “Disruptive innovation will drive the growth in this decade. Innovation at scale is evident across internet, technology, 5G, renewable energy, cyber security across industries.”
Businesses who have embraced innovative technologies have done extremely well. Numerous examples of winners should give us the motivation and sense of aggression for action. We all wish, we would have been more prepared earlier. The good news is that each and every one of us in our respective businesses can still leverage numerous innovations and the new technology, to get our businesses on track in a fairly short period. We need to prepare for the recovery and get the return on investment in less than six months. Here is list of few solutions that are being deployed by clients across the globe to manage through the global crisis (www.tholons.com):
- Cloud Migration, DevOps, SecOps & WFH
- AI Driven Finance and Banking Solutions and Intelligent Automation
- AI Driven Healthcare Intelligent Automation Solutions
- Intelligent Supply Chain
- Digital Omni-channel Contact Centers with Conversational AI
- Automated SAP Migration and Operation
- Intelligent Online Product Posting and HR-Employee Onboarding
- Monetizing Intelligent Process Automation
About Tholons
THOLONS is a Global Strategic Consulting, Research, Digital Innovation and Investment Advisory group serving Fortune 500 / Global 2000 clients. We help clients maximize returns on their innovation, digital transformation, global expansion, and investments in innovative technologies.
Tholons advisors engage with government bodies to build compelling strategies for making countries an attractive destination for New Technology, Business Processes, Innovation and Digital.
MY SPACES, the Enterprise Innovation global network, powered by THOLONS is the global leader and platform in a collaborative ecosystem of Co-work | Co-innovate | Co-invest.
MYSTEPUP, is the foundation for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship for women empowerment, engagement and wealth creation.
About Tholons Global Innovation Index (TGII)
TGII 2021 is the 16th edition since its inception in 2006 and is based on Tholons’s proprietary location assessment framework, which uses both primary and secondary research. Data is collected and validated from an extensive network of industry stakeholders including enterprise buyers, service providers, governments, trade bodies and associations. Innovation / Digital, Talent, Skills & Quality, Cost, Risk & Quality of Life, Business Catalyst and Infrastructure are the key metrics used to rate and rank Super Cities and Digital Nations.
Tholons introduced innovation, startup ecosystem and digital transformation as key components to define its index for Top 50 Digital Nations and Top 100 Super Cities in 2017. Tholons is excited to present its perspective on digital, and how it will change the industry, and the future of economies and growth markets. In TGII 2018 through 2020, additional digital parameters such as cybersecurity, digital skills, scale and global competitiveness were attributed. This 2021 index has a much higher emphasis on digital innovation, re-imagining of consumer experience, transcendental knowledge, future readiness, digital competitiveness, and diversity & inclusion.
Media Contact
San Francisco: Ankita Vashistha | ankita@tholons.com
London: Richard Jones | richard@tholons.com
Asia: Anthony Rajesh | rajesh@tholons.com