India slips to No 54 in competitiveness

NEW DELHI: India has slipped three notches in the Unido���s industrial competitiveness index to feature at the 54th position.

The country���s ranking in the competitive industrial performance (CIP) index went down to 54 in 2005 from 51 in 2000, according to the Industrial Development Report, 2009, released here on Monday.

Launching the report, New Industrial Challenges for the Bottom Billion and the Middle-Income Countries, prepared by the UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), ministry of commerce and industry joint secretary NN Prasad said, ���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.���

Unido head (regional office for south Asia) Philippe R Scholtes said that India���s low ranking can also be attributed to the way the index was developed. The comforting feature was that India has been placed just a notch below Australia in the index that measured competitiveness in 122 countries, he said.

The report, released simultaneously across the world, said 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.

On the issue of manufacturing, especially in value addition, the report said there was an accelerating shift in their location from developed countries. ���East Asia and the Pacific logged the maximum growth of 9.8%, followed by 7.9% for south Asia,��� the report said.

According to the report, India alone accounts for nearly 80% of south Asian manufacturing value 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.