Annual Global Competitiveness Index: India Falls 10 Places to 68th Rank

The annual global competitiveness index has been announced and India has slipped by 10 places to 68th rank. The downfall is largely due to the developments in other economies. The report also revealed that Singapore has superseded the US as the world’s most competitive economy.

According to the report, India’s neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan stand at 84th, 105th, 108th, and 110th places respectively. Looking at the index from the top, you can see Singapore in the first position, followed by the US, Hong Kong in the third, the Netherlands in the fourth, and Switzerland in the fifth positions.

India was ranked 58th in the annual Global Competitiveness Index as compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) in the previous year. It is recognised one among the worst-performing BRICS nations along with Brazil at 71st position.

While announcing the latest index, WEF stated that India’s macroeconomic stability and market size rank high. It also mentioned that the country’s financial sector is relatively deep and stable despite the high delinquency rate, which weakens the banking system. 

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Further, India takes the 15th position in terms of corporate governance, while it stands at second place in terms of shareholder governance. When it comes to the market size and renewable energy regulation, India is at the third rank. India is striding ahead of most emerging economies in terms of innovation; it is on par with many advanced economies.

WEF flagged a number of key areas of improvement in contrast to the positive metrics, such as limited ICT (Information, Communication, and Technology) adoption, low healthy life expectation, and poor health conditions. India is ranked at 109 among 141 countries when it comes to healthy life expectancy. Such a ranking is much below the South Asian average. 

Besides, the skill base of the country needs a lot of improvement. This is significant due to the lack of trade openness in product market efficiency. Similarly, there is a lack of worker rights’ protection, active labour market policies are under-developed, and you can notice the weak participation of women.

Though the drop in the overall ranking of India is 10 places, the decline in the country’s competitiveness is relatively small. The major cause for the fall is that countries such as Columbia, Turkey, and South Africa have improved over the year and have pushed India down.