GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS INDEX

About:

• The annual Global Competitiveness Index is compiled by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).
  
  
• It was first launched in 1979. This is the fourth version of the global competitiveness index – hence referred to as GCI 4.0 – and it was introduced in 2018.
  
  
• GCI maps the factors that determine the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in a country.
  
  
• The GCI 4.0 maps the competitiveness landscape of 141 economies through 103 indicators organised into 12 pillars which are further divided into 4 broad categories namely (1) Enabling Environment, (2) Human Capital, (3) Markets and (4) Innovation Ecosystem.
  
  
• A country’s performance on the GCI results is reported as a ‘progress score’ on a 0-to-100 scale, where 100 represents the ‘frontier’, an ideal state where an issue ceases to be a constraint to productivity growth”.
  
  

Global scenario:

• Singapore has become the world’s most competitive economy in 2019, pushing the US to the second place.
  
  
• Hong Kong SAR is ranked 3rd, Netherlands is 4th and Switzerland is ranked 5th.
  
  

India’s performance:

• India’s 2019 overall score (61.4) fell by merely 0.7 when compared to its 2018 score. But this slippage was enough for it to slide down 10 ranks in the list to 68th position.
  
  
• India is among the worst-performing BRICS nations along with Brazil (ranked even lower than India at 71 this year). India trails China (28th, 73.9) by 40 places and 14 points.
  
  
• Within South Asia, it is the best performer and is followed by Sri Lanka (84th), Bangladesh (105th), Nepal (108th) and Pakistan (110th).
  
  
• India is ranked second globally for shareholder governance, third in terms of the market size and third in terms of renewable energy regulation.