India has retained the 43rd spot in the World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Switzerland-headquartered Institute for Management Development (IMD), which noted that the country has made significant improvements in governance. India has maintained the same rank for the past three years, and its position has not slipped despite the pandemic.
The report, however, said the short term performance of India's economy will depend on its ability to address the pandemic.India has retained the 43rd spot in the World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Switzerland-headquartered Institute for Management Development (IMD), which noted that the country has made significant improvements in governance. India has maintained the same rank for the past three years, and its position has not slipped despite the pandemic.#
The top-performing Asian economies are, in order, Singapore (fifth), Hong Kong (seventh), Taiwan (eighth) and China (16th). Among the BRICS nations, India ranks second after China, followed by Russia (45th), Brazil (57th) and South Africa (62th).
The 64-nation list was 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).
At eighth, Taiwan reached the top-10 for the first time since the ranking began 33 years ago (moving up from 11th last year). The United Arab Emirates and the United States stay in their same spots as last year—ninth and tenth respectively.
"India's improvements in the government efficiency factor are mostly due to relatively stable public finances (despite difficulties brought by the pandemic, in 2020 the government deficit stayed at 7 per cent) and to the positive feedbacks we registered among Indian business executives with respect to the support and subsidies provided by the government to the private companies," the institute said.
The IMD World Competitiveness Ranking ranks 64 economies and assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being through hard data and survey responses from executives. This year, the rankings expose the economic impact of the pandemic across the globe.
The report finds that qualities such as investment in innovation, digitalisation, welfare benefits and leadership, resulting in social cohesion have helped countries better weather the crisis the best and thus ranked higher in competitiveness.
Top-performing economies are characterised by varying degrees of investment in innovation, diversified economic activities, and supportive public policy, experts at the World Competitiveness Centre were cited as saying in the report.
"Strength in these areas prior to the pandemic allowed these economies to address the economic implications of the crisis more effectively," the report said.
Competitive economies succeeded in transitioning to a remote work routine while also allowing remote learning. Addressing unemployment has been fundamental.
Countries that ensured the effectiveness of key public spending, such as public finance, tax policy and business legislation, are seen as essential policies to relieve the pressure on the economies hit by COVID-19, the report added.
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