India was ranked at the 62nd place among emerging economies on Inclusive Development Index, much below China’s 26th position and Pakistan’s 47th.
- Norway remains the world’s most inclusive advanced economy, while Lithuania again tops the list of emerging economies.
- The index takes into account the “living standards, environmental sustainability and protection of future generations from further indebtedness
- It urged the leaders to urgently move to a new model of inclusive growth and development, saying reliance on GDP as a measure of economic achievement is fuelling short-termism and inequality.
- India was ranked 60th among 79 developing economies last year, as against China’s 15th and Pakistan’s 52nd position.
- The 2018 index, which measures the progress of 103 economies on three individual pillars — growth and development; inclusion; and inter-generational equity — has been divided into two parts. The first part covers 29 advanced economies and the second 74 emerging economies.
- The index has also classified the countries into five sub-categories in terms of the five-year trend of their overall Inclusive Development Growth score — receding, slowly receding, stable, slowly advancing and advancing.
- Despite its low overall score, India is among the ten emerging economies with ‘advancing’ trend. Only two advanced economies have shown ‘advancing’ trend.
- Among advanced economies, Norway is followed by Ireland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Denmark in the top five.
- Small European economies dominate the top of the index, with Australia (9) the only non-European economy in the top 10. Of the G7 economies, Germany (12) ranks the highest. It is followed by Canada (17), France (18), the UK (21), the US (23), Japan (24) and Italy (27).
- The top-five most inclusive emerging economies are Lithuania, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Latvia and Poland.
- Performance is mixed among BRICS economies, with the Russian Federation ranking 19th, followed by China (26), Brazil (37), India (62) and South Africa (69).
- Of the three pillars that make up the index, India ranks 72nd for inclusion, 66th for growth and development and 44th for inter-generational equity.
- The neighbouring countries ranked above India include Sri Lanka (40), Bangladesh (34) and Nepal (22). The countries ranked better than India also include Mali, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana, Ukraine, Serbia, Philippines, Indonesia, Iran, Macedonia, Mexico, Thailand and Malaysia.
- Although China ranks first among emerging economies in GDP per capita growth (6.8 per cent) and labour productivity growth (6.7 per cent) since 2012, its overall score is brought down by a acklustre performance on inclusion, the WEF said.
World Economic Forum (WEF)
- The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Swiss non-profit foundation, headquartered in Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland.
- Its mission is cited as "committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas".
- The forum was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a German-born business professor at the University of Geneva. Earlier named the "European Management Forum", it changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987 and sought to broaden its vision to include providing a platform for resolving international conflicts.
