INDICES & REPORTS FOR UPSC PRELIMS 2020 Part 1

Global Gender Gap Report, 2020

Published by World Economic Forum (WEF)

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

India: 112/153 (previous year rank: 108/149)

Countries assessed on 4 dimensions:
(1) Economic Participation and Opportunity,
(2) Educational Attainment,
(3) Health and Survival,
(4) Political Empowerment

Global Performance

• Top performers – Iceland, Norway, and Finland
• Worst performers – Yemen (153), Iraq (152), & Pakistan (151)
• Time it will take to close the gender gap – narrowed to 99.5
  years (108 years in 2018).
• Political empowerment – It has the largest gender disparity.
  Only 25% parliament seats are occupied by women & only 21%
  of ministers are women.
  
  India’s Performance
  
• Slipped down 4 places since last ranking.
• Ranks below countries like China (106), Sri Lanka (102), Nepal
  (101), Brazil (92), Indonesia (85) & Bangladesh (50).
• India has closed 2/3rd of its overall gender gap.
• India’s rank was the worst in the Health and Survival
  parameter (150th) which is computed in terms of life expectancy
  for women and sex ratio at birth.
• Abnormally low sex ratios at birth (91 girls for every 100 boys).
• Economic opportunity – The gap has worsened (149th). Women
  account for only 14% of leadership roles and 30% of
  professional and technical workers. Female estimated earned
  income is mere 1/5th of male income, among world’s lowest.
• Political empowerment – India ranked 18th.
  women make up only 14% of the parliament (122 nd) & 23% of the cabinet (69th).
• India is the only country where economic gender gap > political
  gender gap

Global Competitiveness Report & Index, 2019

Ease of Doing Business, 2020

World Development Report, 2020 by World Bank

• Theme: “Trading for Development in Age of Global Value Chains”
• 2020 report examines whether there is still a path to development
through Global Value Chains (GVCs) and trade.
• Value Chain – It refers to the full life cycle of a product or process,
including material sourcing, production, consumption and disposal/
recycling processes.

Global Value Chain (GVC)

1. A GVC breaks up the production process across countries.
2. Firms specialize in a specific task & do not produce the whole
   product.
3. Each stage adds value, and at least two stages are in different
   countries.
4. Economic fundamentals drive countries’ participation in GVCs
   and national policies aid in enhancing participation &
   broadening benefits.

The Report concludes that GVCs can continue to boost growth,
create better jobs, and reduce poverty, provided that developing
countries undertake deeper reforms and industrial countries
pursue open, predictable policies.

Human Capital Index (HCI), 2019 by World Bank

India Rank: 115/157
• First HCI released as part of the World Development Report 2019.
• It has 3 components:

India: 0.44 score. (Productivity lower than Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Bangladesh)
(*Note – HCI is different from HDI (Human Development Index)
which is published by UNDP)

Global Economic Prospects Report, 2020 (Semi- annual report) BY World Bank

• Global economic growth is expected to rise to 2.5%
• The report predicts India’s growth rate at 5% in FY 2020 (2019-20).
• This is the lowest prediction since 2008-09 (3.1%) ie. in 11 years.
• Reasons – insufficient credit availability and subdued private
consumption.
• Growth in advanced economies is likely to slip to 1.4%
• Growth in the emerging markets and developing economies is expected to accelerate this year to 4.1%

Global Social Mobility Report, 2020 BY World Economic Forum (WEF)

India Rank: 76/82
• The index focusses on those policies, practices and institutions that
collectively determine the extent to which everyone in society has
a fair chance to fulfil their potential, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
Social mobility can be understood as moving ‘upward’ and
‘downward’, whereby people see their circumstances become
better or worse off than those of their parents or within their own
lifetimes.
Absolute upward social mobility refers to the ability for children
to experience a better life than their parents.

Assesses on 5 key dimensions of social mobility, over 10 pillars:

1. Health
2. Education (access, quality/equity, lifelong learning)
3. Technology
4. Work (opportunities, wages, conditions)
5. Protection Institutions (social protection & inclusive institutions)
   

• Top 5 performers – Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland
(All are Nordic nations).
• Increasing social mobility by 10% would benefit social cohesion and
boost the world’s economies by nearly 5% by 2030.
• Economies that stand to gain the most from increases in social
mobility are China, US, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Indonesia,
Brazil, the UK and France.
• It calls for a new financing model for social mobility: Improving tax
progressivity on personal income, policies that address wealth
concentration and broadly rebalancing the sources of taxation.

Global Risks Report, 2020 by World Economic Forum (WEF)

A “global risk” is defined as an uncertain event or condition that, if it
occurs, can cause significant negative impact for several countries or
industries within the next 10 years.

Top 5 global risks in terms of likelihood are —

1. Extreme weather conditions (floods, storms).
2. Climate action failure (Failure of climate-change mitigation &
   adaptation).
3. Major natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic
   eruptions, geomagnetic storms etc.).
4. Major biodiversity loss & ecosystem collapse (terrestrial/marine)
5. Human-made environmental damage and disasters (oil spills,
   radioactive contamination).

To be continued….