World Competitiveness Index 2021 – UPSC Prelims

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World Competitiveness Index
  • The World Competitiveness Index is an annual report published since 1989.
  • Released by: The index is released by the Institute for Management Development (IMD).
  • Aim: The index ranks 64 economies. It assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being through data and survey responses.
  • Parameters: The index measures the prosperity and competitiveness of countries by examining four factors:
    • Economic performance
    • Government efficiency
    • Business efficiency
    • Infrastructure
Key Findings of World Competitiveness Index 2021:
  • Top Rankings: Switzerland has topped the index.
Key Findings Related to India:
  • India’s Ranking: India has maintained the 43rd rank in the world competitiveness index 2021.
  • In 2020, India was ranked 43rd on the index.
  • Comparison with BRICS Countries: Among BRICS countries, India was ranked second (43rd) after China (16th), followed by Russia (45th), Brazil (57th) and South Africa (62nd).
  • Performance of India:
    • Among the four factors, India made significant improvements in government efficiency this year. These improvements are due to the following reasons:
      • Relatively stable public finances (despite difficulties brought by the pandemic, in 2020 the government deficit stayed at 7 per cent) and
      • Positive feedbacks registered among Indian business executives with respect to the support and subsidies provided by the government to the private companies
    • But India’s performance in other parameters such as economic performance, business efficiency and infrastructure remained the same.
  • Strengths of India: India’s strengths lie in investments in telecoms (1st), mobile telephone costs (1st), ICT services exports (3rd), remuneration in services professions (4th) and terms of trade index (5th).
  • Weaknesses of India: India’s weakness lies in the broadband subscribers (64th), exposure to particulate pollution (64th), human development index (64th), GDP per capita (63rd) and foreign currency reserves per capita (62nd).
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