The economic freedom index released by US based new right think tank the Heritage Foundation has placed India at 115th rank out of a list of 157 countries.
Though as compared to China which is placed at 126th position India scores better but India’s neighbours Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka are placed fairly well in the list at 93rd, 112th and 90th rank respectively than India.
Hong Kong topped the list followed by Singapore, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, US, UK, Chile, Switzerland and Canada in the top ten.
The Heritage Foundation pegged India at 54.2% free while mentioning that a score of 50-59.9 “mostly unfree”.
“Its (India's) overall score is 0.1 percentage point higher than last year, partly reflecting improved labour freedom. India is ranked 21st out of 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and its overall score is lower than the regional average,” Heritage Foundation said.
The index is prepared for 10 economic factors including property rights, regulation of wages and prices and trade barriers. The foundation mentioned that there are few areas where India scored better than the world average are smaller government size, labour freedom and property rights while suggesting the area need to be improved like freedom to do business, engage in trade and freedom from corruption.
This report is published By Heritage Foundation and Wall street Journal annually. This index also shows the relationship between economic freedom and prosperity or higher standard of living.
As India is able to climb 0.1 % rank but to create a synergy with the overall development of the country it need to create more and more economic freedom.
But the foundation which gives a positive correlation between increased economic freedom and Human Development Index draws some controversies as India which is 115th at Economic freedom index is placed far better than Pakistan and Nepal at HDI at 128.
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