India Slips 10 Spots In Democracy Index On Back Of 'Erosion Of Civil Liberties'

India has dropped 10 places to 51 in the Democracy Index for the year 2019 compared to last year according to the latest report by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

This is the lowest that India has ranked since the rankings began in 2006. India's overall score for the year 2019 was 6.90 out of 10, drop from 7.23 in 2018. The report said that "erosion of civil liberties" as the primary reason for this drastic drop. The country was ranked 42 in 2017 and 41 in 2018.

The annual Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

The index ranks countries based on their scores on 60 indicators and the classifies the governments in four types of regime: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.

According to the report, only 22 countries qualify as "full democracies" in 2019, while more than a third of the world's population were found to be living under authoritarian rule.

For the year 2019, around 165 countries and two territories' political systems were studies. The report also observed that the year 2019 was the worst democracies since 2006, as the average global score dropped to 5.44 from 5.48 in 2018.

Norway stood top on the index, whereas North Korea was on the bottom of the list. Most Asian countries declined in the rankings in a "tumultuous" year that saw various protests and government restrictions on freedom.

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