India Slips 10 Places On Global Competitiveness Index, One Of The Worst Performing BRICS Nations

India has slipped 10 ranks to 68th place in the annual Global Competitiveness Index even as several other economies in the world went up on the list due to improvements in economic and business activities. The theme of the index was “Searching for the win-win policy space.”

The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was launched in 1979, tracks the competitiveness landscape of 141 economies through 103 indicators organised into 12 pillars. The report “assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens”.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) said that India’s 10 places drop may look, but the change in score is relatively small. This year India is also one of the worst-performing BRICS nations along with Brazil, which is ranked 71 this time.

Singapore, on the other hand, replaced the United States as the world’s most competitive economy. Hong Kong took third place while the Netherlands and Switzerland were placed at 4th and 5th spot respectively.

The WEF study also listed some significant shortcomings in some of the basic enablers of competitiveness in India. The poor health conditions and low life expectancy have also contributed to India’s low rank in terms of competitiveness according to the report.

Besides, India needs to increase its skills base, while a lack of trade openness undermines its product market efficiency. The labour market is characterised by a lack of worker rights’ protections, insufficiently developed active labour market policies and critically low participation of women, the report suggested.

Announcing the fresh index, the WEF said that India’s rank is high in terms of macroeconomic stability and market size. But it also noted that the banking system had been affected by a high delinquency rate.

India’s rank was as high as 15th in terms of corporate governance and ranks second in the world for shareholder governance, according to the WEF study. India also ranked third in terms of market size and renewable energy regulation.

Although the study also suggests that information, communication and technology adoption in India has been weak, India punches above its development status when it comes to innovation, India scores well ahead of most emerging economies and on par with several advanced economies, the report said.

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