India Is World’s 40th Most Competitive Economy: World Economic Forum
India’s slips one place despite improving across most pillars of competitiveness.
India has been ranked as the 40th most competitive economy – slipping one place from last year's ranking – on the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index, which is topped by Switzerland.
In the latest Global Competitiveness Report released on Wednesday, India has slipped from the 39th position to 40th while neighboring China is ranked at number 27. "India stabilises this year after its big leap forward of the previous two years," the report said.
It added that the country’s score has improved across most pillars of competitiveness. These include infrastructure, higher education and training and technological readiness, reflecting recent public investments in these areas, it added.
According to the report, India's performance also improved in ICT (information and communications technologies) indicators, particularly internet bandwidth per user, mobile and broadband subscriptions, and internet access in schools.
However, the WEF said the private sector still considers corruption to be the most problematic factor for doing business in India.
A big concern for India is the disconnect between its innovative strength (29) and its technological readiness (up 3 ranks to 107): as long as this gap remains large, India will not be able to fully leverage its technological strengths across the wider economy.World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report
Among the BRICS, China and Russia (38) are placed above India. South Africa and Brazil are placed at 61st and 80th spots, respectively. In South Asia, India has garnered the highest ranking, followed by Bhutan (82), Sri Lanka (85), Nepal (88), Bangladesh (99) and Pakistan (115).
Improving ICT infrastructure and use remain among the biggest challenges for the region: in the past decade, technological readiness stagnated the most in South Asia.World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report
Among 137 economies, Switzerland is followed by the U.S. and Singapore in second and third places, respectively. Other countries in the top 10 are the Netherlands (4), Germany (5), Hong Kong SAR (6), Sweden (7), United Kingdom (8), Japan (9) and Finland (10).
The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) is prepared on the basis of country-level data covering 12 categories or pillars of competitiveness.
Institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation are the 12 pillars.
According to WEF’s Executive Opinion Survey 2017, corruption is the most problematic factor for doing business in India.
The second biggest bottleneck is 'access to financing', followed by 'tax rates', 'inadequate supply of infrastructure', 'poor work ethics in national labour force' and 'inadequately educated work force', among others.