India gains 39th rank on competitiveness Index
India gains 39th rank on competitiveness Index:- India jumped 16 spots and grabbed the 39th spot for the second year in a row on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index 2016-17. In the year 2015-2016, it gained 55th position. This is the highest jump made by any country on the WEF list, ever.
For the eighth consecutive year, Switzerland took the spot of the top most competitive country and was followed by Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany.
Rankings based on
The rankings are based on countries’ performance on three different indicators which include basic requirements, efficiency enhancers, and innovation and sophistication factor. Performances on these diameters, in turn, are measured through sub-indicators.
“Thanks to the improved monetary and fiscal policies, as well as the lower oil prices by which Indian economy has stabilised and now boasts the highest growth among the G20 countries. All recent reform efforts have completely concentrated on improving the public institutions, opening the economy to the foreign investors and international trade, and making the financial system more transparent, “said the report.
To be precise, India jumped from the 80th spot in 2015-16 to the 63rd spot this year, with improvements seen in the indicators such as institutions, infrastructure and the macroeconomic environment. However, a slight slip was observed on the health and primary education sectors.
India judged on
On institutions indicator, the country jumped from the 60th rank last year to the 42nd rank this year, driven largely by improvements in the diversion of public funds and irregular payments and bribes, efficiency of the legal framework in settling disputes, strength of auditing and reporting standards, and protection of minority shareholders.
Where the improvement on the former is likely to be the result of the government’s initiatives which are aimed at reducing corruption, the latter reflects the measures taken on corporate governance and party’s transactions by authorities such as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Surprisingly, on reliability of the police services, the country moved from the 86th spot in 2015-16 to the 53rd spot in 2016-17.
On infrastructure indicator, country’s ranking improved from 81st rank last year to the 68th rank this year, with progress seen in an overall qualities of infrastructure, roads, railways, port and electricity supply.
Despite all this India needs to improve
However, despite all this the “Lack of infrastructure (68th) and the ICT use (120th) remain at low. Improvement has been moving slowly in the recent years and further investments will be necessary, especially to connect with the rural areas and make sure that they get equal benefits and play an important part in contributing to the country through development,” it added.
As per the WEF report India made a good progress on higher education and training. Through the quality of education system, it has jumped from 43rd spot last year to 29th, from 63rd spot to 44th on quality of Maths and science education, and from 48th spot to 30th on the extent of staff training.
The country has also made a rapid progress on the prevalence of foreign ownership, from 96th spot in 2015-16 to the 72nd spot in 2016-17 and on business impact of rules on the foreign direct investment or FDI, from 92nd spot last year to 71st spot this year. Presumably, these were driven by the government’s initiatives to ease the FDI norms.
According to the report
The WEF report also says that India has made tremendous progress on the labour market efficiency with its ranking improving from 103rd position in 2015-16 to the 84 position in 2016-17 and within this, India jumped from 86th spot to 67th spot on cooperation in labour employer relations, 25th to 15th spot on hiring and firing practices, 47th to 33rd spot on pay and productivity, and 86th to 66th spot on reliance on the professional management.
Notwithstanding the 16 place jump, the WEF report says “a lot has to be done. The labour market is segmented between workers protected by the rigid regulations and centralised wage determinations, especially in the manufacturing sector, and the millions of unprotected and informal workers.”
Description: India ranked 39th in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index 2016-17.
