India slips in competitiveness ranking; US remains at top

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New Delhi, May 15: India, which is rich in land, people and natural resources, has become a less competitive economy in the past one year, with the country slipping two ranks in the latest world’s competitiveness index.

The United States, on the other hand, has retained its top position despite signs of an economic slowdown there.

According to the annual World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008, released on Thursday by Switzerland-based IMD Business School, India has slipped to 29th position, from 27th in the previous year.

While China has also seen its ranking dropping by two places to 17th, it is ranked higher than India and has still managed to keep its position among the top 20 competitive economies in the world.

The Overall Competitiveness Scoreboard is calculated by combining four factors of competitiveness: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure, IMD Business School said on its website.

“Some nations can be rich in assets—land, people, and natural resources - but are not necessarily competitive. This may be the case for Brazil, Indiaand Russia,” said Stephane Garelli, professor at IMD and director of the World Competitiveness Project.

“Other nations such as Singapore, Japan and Switzerland are poor in resources and have relied essentially on transformation processes. In general, the latter nations are more competitive than the former,” Garelli added.

The US has retained its position as most competitive since 1994 with a score of 100/100, but IMD said it was doubtful whether the country would remain at the top in future as well.

“In our 20th Anniversary edition this year, we may be seeing the US in the number one position for the last time!,” IMD said. Singapore is closing the gap with a score of 99.3 and is at the second position, it said.

Besides the US and Singapore, other nations in the 10 most competitive include Hong Kong, Switzerland,

Luxembourg, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Sweden and Netherlands.

India has been given a score of 60.62 points, while that of China is 73.75. The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook is a comprehensive report on the competitiveness of nations and is published since 1989. It provides several customised rankings, whether by size, wealth or regions.