India's Greatest Risks: Corruption, Water Crises and Income Disparity

The survey also spoke of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantees Act which is an example of new government programmes that aim to redistribute wealth and guarantee incomes in an effort to fight poverty and inequality. But, like welfare systems in developed economies, these programmes depend on continued growth and expanding employment and are therefore vulnerable to economic contraction.

It was also seen that in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013, India ranks only 59th globally, three places lower than last year’s findings. “With India expected to overtake Japan as the world’s third-largest economy by 2015 and to surpass China as the most populous nation by 2030, the country is reaching a critical inflection point,” said W Lee Howell, Managing Director, WEF and Head of its Risk Response Network in an interview with Rajiv Shirali for Business Standard.

The survey accessed the perceptions of over 1,000 global experts and the data to map the 50 most prevalent global risks and analyzed their perceived likelihood and impact over a 10-year horizon, allowing for long-term, strategic responses.

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