India’s ranking
According to the latest report of the V-Dem Institute, India is among the top 10 autocratising countries of the world along with El Salvador, Turkey, and Hungary. The report also indicated that there will be a further decline in democracy in India. Since last year, India is being classified as an ‘electoral autocracy’. Thus, India is in the category of the bottom 40% to 50% of countries.

Other observations in the report
The report highlights that a new wave of democratization is being witnessed in 15 countries. On the other hand, 32 countries are reeling under autocratisation.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the last decade witnessed a worsening of autocratisation in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The report noted that the autocratisation is driven by anti-pluralist parties in six countries: Brazil, Hungary, India, Poland, Serbia, and Turkey.
According to the report, the anti-pluralist parties lack a commitment to the democratic process, disrespect fundamental rights of the minorities, encourage demonization of the political opponents, accept political violence in the country and also use the government power to push forward their autocratic agendas.
Global scenario
The report noted that the level of democracy enjoyed by the average global citizen in 2021 is down to 1989 levels. The report also highlighted that all over the world dictatorships are on the rise, which affects around 70% (5.4 billion) of the world population. ‘Electoral autocracy’ affects around 44% (3.4 billion) of the global population.

About the liberal democracy index (LDI)
V-Dem institute categorizes the countries based on its liberal democracy index (LDI), which captures both electoral and liberal aspects of democracy. LDI ranges from 0-1, where 0 indicates the lowest level and 1 indicates the highest level of democracy.