India climbs three spots in IMD's 2018 World Digital Competitiveness Rankings

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India has climbed to the 48th position on the 2018 International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Digital Competitiveness Rankings, an improvement of three places over last year.

Based on the recent IMD World Competitiveness Ranking , the report released on Tuesday exclusively focuses on the Digital dimension and assesses the extent to which a country adopts and explores digital technologies leading to transformation in government practices, business models and society in general.

The US topped the list climbing two notches from No 3 last year, pushing Singapore to the second position among 63 countries. Sweden dropped to Rank 3, one spot lower from its place in 2017.

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IMD uses 50 different parameters to gauge whether an economy is qualified enough. These parameters are divided into three categories, viz. knowledge, technology and future readiness. The report is based on the country’s overall and sub-factor performance, with an analysis data of the last five years.

“The USA capitalises on its improvements in knowledge (4th from 5th) and in technology (3rd from 6th). It remains stable in future readiness (2nd),” said Professor Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center. “Gains in knowledge result from a strong performance in employee training and an increase in the share of scientific and technical employment while the furthering of the technology factor capitalizes on slight advancement in all its sub-factors, including connectivity infrastructure,” he added.

The digital rankings include countries split by population size (populations above and below 20 million), by GDP per capita to reflect different peer groups (above and below $20,000) and three regional rankings drawn from different geographical areas (Europe-Middle East-Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas).

While Asia’s third largest economy lost a few places in the Knowledge and Future Readiness categories, it may seem that the government’s focus on Digital India initiatives has enabled India to climb a few spots in the Technology category. In Knowledge, India stumbled nine places to rank 46 this year from its 37th place in 2017. IMD believes that “a lack of development of highly-skilled workers” led to the fall for India.

Source: IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018

The top ten is completed by Denmark (No 4), Switzerland at number five (up from eight); Norway at the sixth place (up from 10), Finland (Rank 7, Canada at eight, and Netherlands at the ninth spot. The tenth spot was squared off by the UK.

Bris said that the “countries at the top of the rankings share an above the average performance across all competitiveness factors, but their competitiveness mix varies. One economy, for example, may build its competitiveness strategy around a particular aspect such as its tangible and intangible infrastructure; another may approach competitiveness through their governmental efficiency.”