India can be fourth most-powerful nation by 2025: SM Krishna
Wednesday, 20 April 2011, 07:21 IST
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India can be fourth most-powerful nation by 2025: SM Krishna
New Delhi: India can emerge as the world's fourth most-powerful nation by 2025, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said on Tuesday while releasing a government-sponsored National Security Index study that currently places India one place lower. "The revised National Security Index, an analytical tool developed to understand where we stand on various security parametres, points to India emerging as the fourth most powerful in the world by 2025," Krishna noted. "I recollect what MS Dhoni, the captain of India's cricket World Cup winning team, said a few days ago about his team's ODI ranking: 'If we keep playing well, the rankings will take care of themselves'," Krishna added. The index rates India as the fifth most-powerful nation in the world, behind only the US, China, Japan and Russia. The study, conducted by an eminent group of security and diplomacy experts led by former foreign secretary M.K. Rasgotra, rated India from among the world's top 50 countries with high gross domestic product (GDP). The 50 nations were measured in terms of their defence capability, economic strength, effective population, technological prowess and energy security to arrive at the study's conclusions, Foundation for National Security Research (FNSR) director Satish Kumar, who was part of the analysis, told media here. The results of the study are included in "India's National Security Annual Review 2010", brought out by FNSR as part of a series with support from National Security Council Secretariat and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The series was conceptualised in 2000 in the wake of India's 1998 nuclear tests and the Kargil war that followed in 1999 to provide in-depth assessment of national security threats and challenges and to enhance the level of national security consciousness, Satish Kumar, who edited the annual review, said. The last such study was carried out in 2007 and India had held the same position then, as in 2010. South Korea is sixth, Norway seventh and Germany, France and Britain positioned at eighth, ninth and tenth positions, respectively, in the 2010 study. South Korea performed very high on its defence capability index, while Norway scored ahead of these European powers in its energy security index, explained Satish Kumar, who is a retired professor of diplomacy at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. While India ranked third in population and fourth in terms of defence capabilities by the strength of its sheer numbers, it stood 34th in technological prowess and 33rd in energy security. On economic factors, India was ranked seventh. Only US, China and Russia are ranked higher than India in defence capability, while in effective population China and United States were ahead. In economic strength, US, Japan, China, Germany, United Kingdom and France score more than India. Pakistan, which stood 37th overall in the national security index, stood seventh in defence capability, 34th in economic strength, 48th in effective population, 40th in technological prowess and 32nd in energy security. Pakistan stood ahead of India under the energy security parameter. Of the five criteria taken to assess the 50 nations, 30 percent weightage was given to defence capabilities, with economy, technology and population providing 20 percent weightage each and energy security taking away the remaining 10 percentage points. According to the report, the strategic community in India "will take some more time to get used" to India being a high-ranking power. "Of course, the variable that helps India most is the size of its skilled working population. But that variable helps China to a great deal," it said.
Source: IANS
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