Featuring the new Global Competitiveness Index, the Report assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies, providing unique insight into the drivers of economic growth in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Current position of india
The country’s favourable demographic has earned it a rank of 58 among 140 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) latest global competitiveness index. This was mainly because it is home to the third largest market in the world after China and the US, according to the WEF report.
While India’s ranking is 18 places down from last year, the WEF has clarified that the 2018 index employs a majority of new factors such as workforce diversity, labour rights, e-governance, and disruptive businesses. This is the largest gain among all G20 economies. India is the leader among the South Asian economies.
The WEF has credited India’s large market size as its major asset. India was also among the best in four sub-categories.
- Shareholder governance
- Airport connectivity
- GDP per capita (by purchasing power parity)
- Quality of research institutions
China is already more advanced when it comes to investing in research and development… than the average high-income economy, while India is not far behind, and let down only by its less-efficient bureaucracy for business creation and insolvency,” the WEF report says. “The catch-up process is reflected in the emergence of Chinese and Indian companies in technology-intensive sectors”.
India ranks among the bottom 20 countries in:
- Female participation in labour force
- Trade tariffs
- Terrorism incidence
India also has a dismal student-teacher ratio in schools (35.2), an insolvency recovery rate of 26.4 cents for every dollar, and imports make up 23% of its GDP.
The report also says that “relatively low performance on soundness of banks and regulatory capital ratios” are holding back the stability of India’s financial system.
Despite India having the second largest user base of smartphones, mobile and internet penetration is still low, and it takes 29.8 days to start a business in the country.