Where Sri Lanka beats India

The end of the year is also a time for report-cards and end-year-appraisals. It is an opportunity to assess how we did as students, employees as well as nations. This week saw two organizations, United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Legatum coming up with their own rankings about how the countries of the World have been doing so far in this year in terms of prosperity.

As a person who lives and works in South-Asia, I must say that the overall rankings for the region are depressing in both the rankings.

By the Legatum ratings, amongst 22 countries in Asia which have been considered for these rankings, South Asian countries come at the bottom-most part and out of 5 South Asian countries that have been considered for these rankings, 4 of them are amongst the bottom 5. To summarize, countries of this region are members of a club whose membership is most undesired. But these rankings are remarkable in another aspect.

We in India, generally consider ourselves as the “undisputed champion” when it comes to South Asia. After all, we are the biggest of the lot in terms of size and manpower as well as in terms of overall economy. We are also supposedly the most stable and mature country in the region in terms of democracy and civil society. We happen to produce number of billionaires and Bollywood blockbusters in the region and most important of all to an average Indian, did we not just won the World Cup?

But according to the two rating agencies that I have mentioned in the beginning, we are not the numero uno in terms of prosperity in our own South Asian region. Ironically, it is those hapless Islanders from Lanka whom we so thoroughly defeated in the World cup final seemingly have defeated us to take the numero uno crown in both the UNDP and Legatum rankings. Those of my fellow citizens who would be already thinking about the biasness involved behind these ranking systems (like we regularly fume after the publication of each ICC rankings) , let me state the fact that the Islanders may live in a tiny country but they have been defeating us in these prosperity rankings for last few years now.

According to the Legatum rankings, India, despite producing most number of billionaires in the region, trails behind Sri Lanka and even our bete noire Pakistan in terms of Entrepreneurship and Opportunity. India is at the unenviable 90-th position in the rankings for this category whereas the Islanders are at the 75-th position and the Pakistanis are at 86-th position.

If we go into the details, the picture becomes more depressing. It seems from the reports that it is much easier to start up a new business in Sri Lanka than in India. Average costs for starting a new business in terms of per capita national income, is much lesser in Sri Lanka (5.4%) compared to India (at 57%). 98% of Sri Lankans surveyed in 2010 think that hard work enables people to get ahead in life, the second highest proportion in the Index whereas only 85% of people in India think on similar lines, according to the report.

In terms of health, social capital, education and personal freedom rankings, India trails behind our Lankan neighbors in all these indicators.

So the bottom line is that we may have defeated the Emerald Islanders in the Cup final, but they beat us hands down in most indicators of national prosperity.

Note:
1. http://www.prosperity.com/
2. http://hdr.undp.org/en/