India has raced 16 ranks ahead to find itself in the 39th spot on the global competitiveness index (GCI) prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
According to the report, India’s “competitiveness has improved across the board, in particular in goods market efficiency, business sophistication, and innovation”.
India is now the second-most competitive country among the five-nation BRICS, however, behind China, which is at the 28th spot. The top three ranking countries were Switzerland, Singapore, and the US.
Other South Asian nations in the list were Sri Lanka 71, Bhutan 97, Nepal 98, Bangladesh at 106. Pakistan has been ranked at 122, last amongst the region. Corruption, followed by crime and theft, tax rates, access to finance and government instability and coups, has been identified has the most problematic factor for doing business in Pakistan.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2016-17 competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was introduced by the WEF in 2005. This year the list was compiled after analysing 138 countries.
Defining competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors which determine the level of productivity of a country, the calculations of the GCI scores are made by drawing together country-level data covering 12 categories, the pillars of competitiveness that collectively make up a comprehensive picture of a country’s competitiveness.
The 12 categories, or the pillars of competitiveness are-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.
