Economic freedom: India ranks worse than Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, says US conservative thinktank

India's labour freedom: Heritage Foundation

By A Representative
In a major setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claimed successes in opening Indian market for foreign investors, the world’s foremost conservative political think tank, Heritage Foundation, has ranked India 143rd in economic freedom index, worse than Pakistan (141st), Bangladesh (128th), Nepal (125th), and Sri Lanka (112th).
Based in Washington DC, Heritage Foundation, in its latest report titled “2017: Index of Economic Freedom”, has found that, among the comparable countries which form BRICS, Brazil ranks 140th, Russia 114th, China 111th, and South Africa 81st -- all better than India.
Interestingly, the Heritage Foundation’s 2016 economic freedom report ranks India 123rd, suggesting India has slipped by a whopping 20 points in just one year.
The report calls India a “significant force in world trade”, but insists, “Corruption, underdeveloped infrastructure, and poor management of public finance continue to undermine overall development” of the country despite the fact that “the economy has sustained an average annual growth rate of about 7 percent over the past five years.”
“Growth is not deeply rooted in policies that preserve economic freedom”, the report believes, adding, “Progress on market-oriented reforms has been uneven.”
The report regrets, “The state maintains an extensive presence in many areas through public-sector enterprises”, adding, “A restrictive and burdensome regulatory environment discourages the entrepreneurship that could provide broader private-sector growth.”
The report underlines, “State-owned enterprises distort the economy. Despite some liberalization and modernization, state-owned institutions dominate the banking sector and capital markets.”
Yet, the report calls India is “a stable democracy”, and praises Modi for “reinvigorating India’s foreign policy”, bolstering “ties with the US, particularly in defense cooperation.”
But it does not fail to mention that “India has technology and manufacturing sectors as advanced as any in the world as well as traditional sectors characteristic of a lesser developed economy”, adding, “Extreme wealth and poverty coexist as the nation both modernizes rapidly and struggles to find paths to inclusive development for its large and diverse population.”
The report further says, “Real property rights are generally well enforced in metropolitan areas, although titling remains unclear in many other urban and rural areas”, adding, “The judiciary is independent, but courts are understaffed and lack the technology necessary to clear an enormous backlog.”
The report says, it is “domestic and international pressure” alone which led to the “passage of legislation aimed at addressing corruption”, but adds, “There is little evidence that it is being implemented effectively.”
Suggesting that the taxes are high, the report emphasises, “The top individual income tax rate is 30.9 percent (including an education tax). The top corporate tax rate is 34.6 percent. The overall tax burden equals 16.6 percent of total domestic income.”
It adds, “Government spending has amounted to 27.4 percent of total output (GDP) over the past three years, and budget deficits have averaged 7.3 percent of GDP. Public debt is equivalent to 67.2 percent of GDP.”
“The regulatory framework is burdensome, and the legal framework is weak”, the report states, adding, “Labour regulations continue to evolve, and the informal economy is an important source of employment.”
The report is critical of the Government of India depending heavily of subsidies, saying, “Although the IMF reported in 2016 that India’s ‘major subsidies’ (e.g., on fuels and fertilizer) dropped below 2 percent of GDP, the government is introducing a new basic foods subsidy for around two-thirds of the population.”

Comments

C S JACOB said…

One needs to know the parameters based on which the ranking was done. The drop in the index from 2014 is too steep which is difficult to accept.

February 17, 2017

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

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.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

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

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah 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".

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog