Govt seeks details of parameters to improve India’s ranking on global Democracy Index

NEW DELHI: The Union law ministry’s legislative department wrote to several ministries and departments on April 1 seeking details on the parameters used in the rankings of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, as part of a larger exercise under the aegis of Niti Aayog to monitor parameters used in key global indices including Ease of Doing Business, World Press Freedom,

Human Development, Global Innovation, and Global Climate Risk.

This, senior officials familiar with the matter said, was with the view of improving India’s rankings on global barometers, including the Democracy Index. In the latest 2020 Democracy Index global ranking released on February 3, India slipped two places to 53rd (out of 167 countries), its overall score fell from 6.9 the previous year to 6.6, and classified India as a “flawed democracy” along with countries including the US, France,

Belgium and Brazil.

The government’s move to monitor indices, and work on improving rankings, however, precedes the release of index.

“…a CoS (committee of secretaries) meeting was held on 30 January, 2020, under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary to discuss India’s ranking in the Global Competitive Indices decided to measure and monitor India’s performance on various important parameters through 32 internationally recognised indices to improve performance on these indices…

Accordingly, the Legislative Department had been assigned to monitor India’s performance on the Democracy Index published by the Economic Intelligence Unit of United Kingdom,” the letter written by the law ministry’s legislative department on April 1 said.

HT has reviewed a copy of the letter.

EIU’s index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories measuring pluralism, civil liberties and political culture.