India maintains 43rd rank on IMD’s World Competitiveness Index

Subject : International Reports

Context : Recently, the Institute for Management Development (IMD) has released the World Competitiveness Index 2021.

Concept :

It is led by Switzerland, while Sweden has moved up to the second position (from sixth last year).
Denmark has lost one place to rank third, the Netherlands has retained its fourth place and Singapore has slipped to the fifth place (from first in 2020).

Performance of India under World Competitiveness Index 2021

India has maintained 43rd rank on an annual World Competitiveness Index.
Among the BRICS nations, India is ranked second after China (16), followed by Russia (45th), Brazil (57th) and South Africa (62th).
India has maintained its position for the past three years but this year, it had significant improvements in government efficiency.
India’s improvements in the government efficiency factor are mostly due to:
Relatively stable public finances; and
Support and subsidies provided by the government to the private companies

About World Competitiveness Index

It ranks 64 economies and assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being.
It measures the prosperity and competitiveness by examining four factors i.e. economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
It is an annual ranking which was first published in 1989.
It analyzes and ranks countries according to how they manage their competencies to achieve long-term value creation.
It is based on 334 competitiveness criteria selected as a result of comprehensive research using economic literature, international, national and regional sources and feedback from the business community, government agencies and academics.