India ranks low on inclusive growth and development: WEF

By NewsGram Staff-Writer

Geneva: India has been globally ranked low on the most of the parameters indicating inclusive growth and development. The rankings released on Monday by the World Econmic Forum (WEF) although places India at better position in scale business and political ethics category.

In the first such global rankings issued by the Switzerland-based think tank, India has mostly been placed in the bottom half of the 38 countries that make up our lower middle income bracket. Areas where India ranks low include fiscal transfers, where it ranks 37 out of 38, tax code where it is placed at 32, and social protection where India is given 36^th rank.

The World Economic Forum noticed that most countries are missing major opportunities to reduce income inequality while ranking countries in terms of their per capita income levels. The same is the case with India for being low on ranks.

Otherwise India stands at 12^th place in business and political ethics, while it ranks 11th on the "Financial intermediation of real economy investment pillar", which is an indicator of the fact that money invested in the economy generally gets directed towards productive uses.

WEF said another area where policy-makers in India need to prioritise improvement would be "Asset building and entrepreneurship", especially in the sphere of "Small business ownership", where India ranks at the bottom at 38^th place.

However, India demonstrates leadership in other areas like corruption and rents, where it comes 8^th in the ranking.

WEF said the Inclusive Growth and Development Report covering 112 economies presents a new framework for assessing countries' efforts to foster economic growth that raises the living standards of entire societies.

Releasing the report, WEF officials stated, "We appeal that leaders must pursue economic strategies that are pro-growth and pro-labour"

Also the organiser of the famous economic conclave, WEF further told that the new study conducted over the last two years, seeks to identify the various ways through which policy-makers can drive economic growth and equity at the same time. It also assesses them on their relative success.