India maintains its rank in Competitiveness Index

India retained its 43rd rank in the annual World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Institute for Management Development (IMD). Switzerland bagged the first spot in this 64-nation list, folowed by Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands & Singapore. Besides Singapore (fifth), the other top performers in South Asia were Hong Kong (seventh), Taiwan (eighth) and China (16th). While among the BRICS grouping, India is ranked second after China (16), followed by Russia (45th), Brazil (57th) and South Africa (62th).

The index examined the impact of COVID-19 on economies around the world this year. “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,” IMD stated. It added that 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.