India ranks 76th in “Global Social Mobility Index” which was launched at World Economic Forum

India secured 41st in lifelong learning and 53rd in working conditions

• The World Economic Forum released the Social Mobility Index. The index measures social mobility of the population world wide
• India is ranked 76th out of 82 economies. It ranks 41st in lifelong learning and 53rd in working conditions
• The top five are all Scandinavian, while the five economies with the most to gain from boosting social mobility are China, the United States, India, Japan and Germany

Key highlights of the Index

• Global Social Mobility Index assesses the 82 economies on “10 pillars” spread across the following five key dimensions of social mobility
• The assessment areas are health; education (access, quality and equity); technology; work (opportunities, wages, conditions); and protections and institutions (social protection and inclusive institutions) – shows that fair wages, social protection and lifelong learning are the biggest drags on social mobility globally
• The Nordic nations hold the top five spots, led by Denmark in the first place (scoring 85 points), followed by Norway, Finland and Sweden (83 points) and Iceland (82 points)
• Among the G7 economies, Germany is the most socially mobile – ranking 11th, followed by France in 12th position
• Among BRICS grouping, the Russian Federation is the most socially mobile (39th), followed by China (45th), Brazil (60th), India (76th) and South Africa (77th)
• The report also examines which economies stand to gain the most from increases in social mobility
• The economy with the most to gain is China, whose economy could grow by an extra USD 103 billion a year, or USD 1 trillion dollars over the decade
• The US is the economy that would make the second-largest gains, at USD 87 billion a year. Next is India, followed by Japan, Germany, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, the UK and France

India’s position in the Index

• India ranked 76th among 82 countries on the social mobility index of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on account of its poor performance in improving the quality of and access to education and health
• It has one of the highest figures of workers in vulnerable employment, too
• Low life expectancy and low health access and quality performance, India scored 54.6 on the health pillar
• Indian scored 41.1 on education access and 31.3 on education quality and equity
• In terms of prevalence of malnourishment, India was the worst performer; Ghana, whose overall rank is 70, topped the category
• India ranked 76th on the health access and quality index, harmonized learning outcomes index, and the fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions index
• In terms of work opportunities, India has the second-highest level of workers in vulnerable employment in the ranking (76.2%), behind Saudi Arabia and a low female labor participation rate
• India also needs structural reforms to be able to provide fair wages, and its social protection net is very low
• Increasing social mobility, a key driver of income inequality, by 10 per cent would benefit social cohesion and boost the world’s economies by nearly 5 per cent by 2030
• India’s overall social expenditure is very low at 2.68% of GDP

World Economic Forum – 2020

• The flagship event of the World Economic Forum is the invitation-only annual meeting held at the end of January in Davos, Switzerland
• It brought together chief executive officers from its 1,000 member companies, as well as selected politicians, representatives from academia, NGOs, religious leaders, and the media in an alpine environment
• The theme for the year 2020 is “Stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world”

Pic courtesy : india tv