Despite 16 point "jump" in India's competitiveness, it is very difficult to start business in India: WEF

Even as pointing out that, after five years of decline, India has “jumped” 16 ranks to 55th place in global competitive index, the World Economic Forum in its new report has said the situation on the macroeconomic front “remains worrisome.” While pointing out that India is the third biggest market in the world, up for grabs for global investors, the report finds the situation particularly bad on the social front, especially health and education.

The report, titled “Global Competitive Report 2015-16”, gives full mark to the “momentum initiated by the election of Narendra Modi, whose pro-business, pro-growth, and anti-corruption stance”, though at the same time underlines, “Business leaders still consider corruption to be the biggest obstacle to doing business in the country.”
While India may have jumped 16 places in the competitive index, the WEF the ranking at 55th of 140 countries, as against the 71st position in 2014-15, is till not good enough – after all, despite the “massive jump”, which follows five years of a decline on the list, India still ranks seven notches lower than it did in 2007, when the UPA government was strong and in power.
While agreeing that “inflation eased to 6 percent in 2014, down from near double-digit levels the previous year”, the report says, issues of “technological readiness” particularly need attention. India remaining “one of the least digitally connected countries in the world (120th, up one)”, it says, adding, “Fewer than one in five Indians access the Internet on a regular basis, and fewer than two in five are estimated to own even a basic cell phone.”
The report ranks India 114th on infant mortality rate (41.4 per 1000), one of the worst, out of 140 countries surveyed. It ranks India 107th in live expectancy at 66.5 years. Ranking 105th, the report states, there was 68.5 per cent of gross enrollment at the secondary level schooling. Then, India ranks No 100th in Internet access in schools.
Coming to other areas, the report says India ranks No 120th in flexibility of wage determination; 132nd in women in labour force, one of the worst the world; 102nd in the availability of latest technology; 102nd in firm-level technology absorption; 107th in individuals using Internet, and so on.
It is not just in the social sector that India remains a poor performer; it is equally poor in allowing businesses to start. Thus, the report finds that in number of procedures to start a business, India ranks No 129, in number of days to start a business it ranks No 110, in trade tariff as percentage of duty it ranks No 124, and in imports as a percentage of gross domestic product, it ranks No 116 .
The report has ranked Switzerland No 1, followed by Singapore, United States, Germany and the Netherlands. Among the BRICS nations, the report ranks China 28th, Russia 45th (up from 53rd a year ago), South Africa 49th (up from 46th a year ago), and Brazil 75th (down from 57th a year ago).
The Global Competitiveness Report 2015–2016, the 36th edition in the series, the index combines 114 indicators that capture concepts that matter for productivity. These indicators are grouped into 12 pillars: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labor market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.
These are in turn organized into three subindexes, in line with three main stages of development: basic requirements, efficiency enhancers, and innovation and sophistication factors”, the report says, adding, “The three subindexes are given different weights in the calculation of the overall index, depending on each economy’s stage of development, as proxied by its GDP per capita and the share of exports represented by raw materials”, the report says.
Pointing towards the reasons why why it looked into health and primary education, the report says, “A healthy workforce is vital to a country’s competitiveness and productivity. Workers who are ill cannot function to their potential and will be less productive. Poor health leads to significant costs to business, as sick workers are often absent or operate at lower levels of efficiency. Investment in the provision of health services is thus critical for clear economic, as well as moral, considerations.”

Comments

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Search This Blog