India more prosperous than U.S. and China
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 27 October 2009, 22:43 IST   |    8 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
India more prosperous than U.S. and China
Bangalore: Based on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth together with measures of happiness and quality of life, the Legatum Prosperity Index ranks India 45th in the world, slightly behind Brazil (41st) but well ahead of China (75th). The third edition of the Legatum Prosperity Index, ranks 104 countries (covering 90 percent of the world's population), based on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth together with measures of happiness and quality of life. Although, China has outperformed India on several economic indicators, India's superior overall ranking is achieved through its performance in the critical non-economic factors such as personal freedom which encompasses freedom of speech and religion, national tolerance for immigrants and ethnic and racial minorities and for which India ranks 47th globally compared to China's 91st place. India also ranks highly on measures of social capital, reflected in the percentage of citizens who volunteer, give to charity, help strangers, and who feel they can rely on family and friends. In this area, India ranks fifth in the world, ahead of the U.S, UK and Finland. "India is a classic example of a country whose prosperity stems largely from its social capital and quality of life rather than its performance on the purely economic measures. Although China outperforms India on several economic indicators, India is 30 places higher in the final rankings because of China's poor levels of personal freedom and democracy. However, there are some areas of concern for India, particularly in the quality of healthcare and education for which India ranks 88th and 86th respectively," said Dr. William Inboden, Senior Vice President of the Legatum Institute. Finland tops the index, followed by Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark; the U.S. is 9th and the UK is 13th. The index identified nine key factors that drive economic growth and personal well being, which are foundations of prosperity. Each of these nine factors is represented in a sub-index and a country's final prosperity index ranking is generated by averaging its scores across all nine sub-indexes, equally weighted.

siliconindia