New Delhi: India's competitiveness declines with the country witnessing a drop in the global competitiveness ranking to 50th position from 48th. Amongst the BRIC nations it's only India which has seen a drop while other three climbed up the ladder of competitiveness.

The rankings based on the World Economic Forum survey sees China step up by four steps from 34th to 30th. Even Russia and Brazil has seen a positive climb from 58th and 72nd ranks to 51st and 64th. The main factor behind this slip is its instable macroeconomics, and according to the forum, "India's overall deficit is weakened with the government running one of the highest deficits in the world."

However, the survey conducted amongst 134 countries has shown U.S. at the top of the chart despite the economic turmoil it's been through. Following which are Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Singapore as the top five rank holders.

This positioning of the countries, in the Global Competitiveness 2008-09 report, is done through considering publicly available data and the executive opinion survey which was designed to scan the broad range of factors affecting an economy's business climate. So, incase of India apart from the deficits, there are various strong poles like strong business clusters, a large number of local suppliers and the availability of skilful scientists, engineers and research institutions. This has the potential to push up the country in the future.