India becomes less competitive, drops to 50th rank

LONDON: India has dropped in its global competitiveness ranking to the 50th place, while neighbouring China has improved its ranking to the 30th spot in the latest list compiled by the World Economic Forum.
    
In the annual Global Competitiveness 2008-09 Report, India has dropped two places from last year's 48th spot.
    
Even as the financial turmoil is ravaging the economy, the US has topped the league of 134 countries.
    
In last year's list, China was at the 34th place, while India was ranked at the 48th position.
    
Among the BRIC economies, China has the highest rank, followed by India, Russia (51st) and Brazil (64th).
    
Further, only India has dropped in the ranking, while Russia and Brazil have jumped from last year's 58th and 72nd positions, respectively.
    
The top four countries in the index -- US, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden -- have retained their respective positions from last year.
    
The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey  a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes in the countries covered by the report.
    
This year, over 12,000 business leaders were polled in a record 134 global economies. The survey is designed to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy's business climate, WEF said in a statement on Wednesday.
    
Other countries in the top 10 are Singapore (5th), Finland (6th), Germany (7th), Netherlands (8th), Japan (9th) and Canada (10th).