India drops two points in competitive index

New Delhi: Rapid export growth in India made South Asia the fastest growing region in export of manufactured goods, while the country has slipped three points in UN's Competitive Industrial Performance (CIP) Index globally. As per the industrial development report, 2009, India's rank in CIP index has gone down to 54 in 2005 from 51 in 2000.

"The report captures the development during 2000-05. In fact, 2005-08 was a good period. We are quite certain that India will regain and improve its position once the index is updated," said MN Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and industry.

However, according to Philippe R Scholtes, the lowering of India's ranking is not very significant as some smaller countries had a little advantage in some of the CIP variables.

The report, released simultaneously across the world, reveals that developing countries have gained world share between 2000 and 2005 in both simple manufactures, based on resources and low technology, as well as in complex products.

There was an accelerating shift from developed countries on the issue of manufacturing, especially in value addition, the report says. East Asia and the Pacific logged the maximum growth of 9.8 percent, followed by 7.9 percent for South Asia.

The report also finds that India alone accounts for nearly 80 percent of South Asian manufacturing addition. "South Asia's performance is driven by India, where electrical machinery and apparatus, iron and steel processing of nuclear fuel and chemicals grew quite rapidly," the report added.