Global Competitive Index: India ranked 68th

India secured 68th position in the Global Competitiveness Index 2019, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) recently. India slipped 10 points from the previous year.

Singapore replaces the US and stood at the first position.

Key facts:

• India, despite getting 68th position loses ground in the rankings despite a relatively stable score, mostly due to faster improvements of several countries previously ranked lower.
• Countries like Colombia (57), Azerbaijan (58), South Africa (60) and Turkey (61) surpassed India in this year?s survey.
• India?s score fell in eight out of 12 parameters while other countries improved their domestic business environment faster than India.
• In South Asia, India is followed by Sri Lanka (84), Bangladesh (105), Nepal (108) and Pakistan (110).

Concerning parameters:

• India performs abysmal low in certain parameters like the financial system, infrastructure building, labour market stability, product market, innovation and skilling.
• At the same time, health conditions remain poor, as reflected in low healthy life expectancy (59.4 years, 109th), which is one of the shortest outside Africa and significantly below the South Asian average.

Ways to improve

WEF said India must grow its skills base and work on the protection of labour?s rights and sufficiently develop active labour market policies. Women participation should be enhanced in all sectors and domain.