Skip to main content

India ranks worse than neighbours, including Pakistan, in inclusive development index: World Economic Forum

By Our Representative
The World Economic Forum, in its recently-released “The Inclusive Growth and Development Report 2017”, has ranked India No 60th in inclusive development index (IDI) out of 79 countries it has categorized as “developing economies”.
What should be worrisome for the policy-makers is, the WEF – which is a Switzerland-based international body known for engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to “shape global, regional, and industry agendas" – ranks Pakistan 52nd, Sri Lanka 39th, Bangladesh 36th, Nepal 27th, and China 15th.
Saying that India is advancing slowly, the report notes, hte country’s poor IDI ranking has come about “despite the fact that its growth in GDP per capita is among the top 10”, its “labour productivity growth has been strong”, and “poverty has been falling, albeit from a high level.”
However, it comments, “On the other hand, its debt-to-GDP ratio is high, raising some questions about the sustainability of government spending.”
Providing reasons for poor IDI ranking, the report says, India’s “educational enrollment rates are relatively low across all levels, and quality varies greatly, leading to notable differences in performance among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.”
It adds, “While unemployment is not as high as in some other countries, the labour force participation rate is low, the informal economy is large, and many workers are in vulnerable employment situations with little room for social mobility.”
WEF believes, “A more progressive tax system would help raise capital for expenditure on infrastructure, healthcare, basic services, and education.”
Even as saying that “India scores well in terms of access to finance for business development and real economy investment”, the report insists, “However, new business creation continues to be held back by corruption, underdeveloped infrastructure, and the large administrative burden involved in starting and running companies.”
Pointing to how poor, especially from the rural areas, have still not become part of free market, the report notes, “Recent research on poverty shows that tariffs and non-tariff barriers are higher for the poor, which limits their chance to access international markets.”
Giving the example of India, it says, the country’s tariffs “faced in destination markets are increasingly higher for goods produced by individuals in lower-income groups. Households in rural areas face an average tariff 10.9 percentage points higher than their urban counterparts.”
It adds, “This underlines that the poor are likely to pay the highest penalty if countries stall in their efforts to reduce barriers to trade, or worse, begin to roll back the reforms that have been achieved to date.”
Underlining that IDI “offers a more integrated and holistic picture of the state of economic development of countries than GDP per capita alone”, the report says, IDI is “useful for governments and stakeholders seeking to assess the effect of changes in policy and conditions within a typical political cycle.”
“Some countries score significantly better on the IDI than on the basis of GDP per capita, suggesting they have done a relatively good job of making their growth processes more inclusive”, such as Cambodia and Vietnam in the developing world. They rank 25th and 43rd respectively.
The report believes, “One drawback with GDP per capita is that it takes no account of distribution: it simply divides a nation’s income by the size of its population. If inequality in that country is very high, the resulting figure will provide a misleadingly optimistic suggestion of living standards for most individuals.”

Comments

TRENDING

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Modi govt intimidating US citizens critical of abuses in India: NY Christian group to Biden

Counterview Desk  the New York Council of Churches for its release of an open letter calling on the Biden administration to “speak out forcefully” against rising Hindu extremist violence targeting Christians and other minorities in India. In the letter addressed to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other major elected officials, the NY Council of Churches expressed "grave concern regarding escalating anti-Christian violence" throughout India, particularly in Manipur, where predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribals have faced hundreds of violent attacks on their villages, churches, and homes at the hands of predominantly Hindu Meitei mobs.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Link India's 'deteriorating' religious conditions with trade relations: US policymakers told

By Our Representative  Commissioners on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) raised concerns about the “sophisticated, systematic persecution” of religious minorities by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a hearing on India in Washington DC.

Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

MS Swaminathan Counterview Desk In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers. Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’. Pointing ou

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.