India drops to 60 in WEF's competitiveness ranking

Switzerland tops for the fifth continuous year, followed by Singapore and Finland at second and third, respectively

India has dropped a place in the latest global ranking of countries' competitiveness, launched by the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), an independent non-profit foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The country's competitiveness, on a continuous decline since 2009, slipped to 60th in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2013-14 (total 148 economies). The GCI, introduced by the WEF in 2004, defines competitiveness as "the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country".

The GCI scores are calculated by drawing together country-level data covering 12 categories - institutions, innovations, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size and business sophistication and innovation.

The report identifies inadequate supply of infrastructure, inefficient bureaucracy, corruption and tax regulations as four of the top-16 most-problematic factors for doing business in India. The country ranked 96th in the "basic requirements", including four categories of institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment and health and primary education.

The report placed Switzerland at the top for the fifth continuous year, followed by Singapore and Finland at second and third, respectively . Germany, moving up two places, was ranked fourth, and the US reversed a four-year trend and climbed two places to fifth.

Among the Asian economies, Indonesia jumped to 38th, making it the most improved of the G20 economies since 2006. South Korea fell six places to 26th.