In today's global economy, the ability of a country to develop, adapt and harness its potential for innovation is becoming critical for its long-term economic performance. Most of the developing and emerging economies of the world are following a proactive approach and policy towards innovation. India is no exception to this trend. Recently, the president of India has declared the present decade as the decade of innovation and the prime minister has called upon the country's scientists to unleash the best innovative potential. Even though India is yet to formally adopt a national innovation policy, different ministries and departments associated with various sectors have articulated and budgeted for three main innovation policy challenges: enhancing innovation potential in new technologies, building technological capabilities and competitiveness in the manufacturing and service sector and reconfiguring the formal and informal sectors. In this context, ‘India: Science and Technology (S&T) Report 2010-11’, the sequel to ‘India: S&T 2008”, has been designed with innovation as its core concept. Thus, the central focus of this report is to identify the nature and extent of innovative activities in the country, to identify the lacunae in innovation support mechanism and to suggest S&T interventions in the policy matrix so that India could be in the forefront of economic development.