GOI flagged low score in World Bank’s governance indicators
Recently, the central government has protested against being given a low score in the World Governance Indicators (WGI) of the World Bank.
India’s scores in the World Bank’s analysis of Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are “significantly lower” than its peers across all indicators. This analysis is a major basis for India’s sovereign rating.
These data sources include think tanks, survey agencies and international media such as Freedom House, Economist Intelligence Unit, etc.
Their analysis can reduce India’s sovereign rating.
World Governance Indicators (WGI):
- The WGI report provides information on overall and individual governance indicators for more than 200 countries and territories for the period 1996-2020.
- These indicators are based on 6 dimensions of governance. It involves the collective opinion of a large number of enterprises, citizens and experts in industrialized and developing countries through surveys.
- In the past too, several other reports have objected to the downplaying of India’s position. Such as: WHO’s method of estimating the number of dead due to Kovid-19, India’s rank in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s ranking has dropped from 27 in 2014 to 51 in 2019, and India has been ranked world in the Global Hunger Index 2021. It is ranked 101st out of 116 countries.
Shortcomings of reports –
- In the method of ranking, more importance is given to a particular indicator,
- Inappropriate statistical/mathematical models are used,
- Comparisons are made to a country’s past performance without including critical inputs
- A subjective approach is used to measure other objective components etc.
6 Dimensions of Governance of WGI
- Voice of the people and accountability to them.
- Political stability and absence of violence/terrorism.
- Government effectiveness.
- Regulatory quality.
- Rule of law
- Control over corruption.
Source – The Hindu
