Context: India has retained the 43rd spot in the World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Institute for Management Development (IMD).
About the Index

• The ranking, produced annually by the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
• It measures the prosperity and competitiveness of 64 nations by examining four factors -- economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.
• It assesses the extent to which a country promotes the prosperity of its people by measuring economic well-being through hard data and survey responses from executives. 
• This year, the rankings expose the economic impact of the pandemic across the globe.

Key highlights for India
The country has maintained the same rank for the past three years, and its position on the list has not slipped despite the COVID-19 jolt to the economy.
"India's improvements in the government efficiency factor are mostly due to 

• relatively stable public finances (despite difficulties brought by the pandemic, in 2020 the government deficit stayed at 7 per cent) and 
• to the positive feedbacks we registered among Indian business executives with respect to the support and subsidies provided by the government to the private companies,".

Global Scenario

• Index is top by Switzerland, while Sweden has moved up to the second position (from sixth last year), Denmark has lost one place to rank third, the Netherlands has retained its fourth place and Singapore has slipped to the fifth place (from first in 2020).
• At eighth, Taiwan reached the top-10 for the first time since the ranking began 33 years ago (moving up from 11th last year). The UAE and the USA remain in their same spots as last year (9th and 10th, respectively)
• The top-performing Asian economies are, in order, Singapore (fifth), Hong Kong (seventh), Taiwan (eighth) and China (16th).
• Among the BRICS nations, India is ranked second after China (16), followed by Russia (45th), Brazil (57th) and South Africa (62th).

Key Findings

• The report finds that qualities such as investment in innovation, digitalisation, welfare benefits and leadership, resulting in social cohesion have helped countries better weather the crisis the best and thus ranked higher in competitiveness.
• The report said top-performing economies are characterised by varying degrees of investment in innovation, diversified economic activities, and supportive public policy, according to the experts at the World Competitiveness Center.
• "Strength in these areas prior to the pandemic allowed these economies to address the economic implications of the crisis more effectively".
• Competitive economies succeeded in transitioning to a remote work routine while also allowing remote learning. Addressing unemployment has been fundamental.
• Countries that ensured the effectiveness of key public spending, such as public finance, tax policy and business legislation, are seen as essential policies to relieve the pressure on the economies hit by COVID-19.

About World Competitiveness Ranking

• The list is compiled by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management and Development (IMD)’s World Competitiveness Center (WCC).
• The IMD measures how well countries manage all their resources and competencies in order to facilitate long-term value creation.
• It takes into account a wide range of statistics such as unemployment, GDP and government spending on health and education, as well as data from an executive opinion survey covering topics such as social cohesion, globalisation and corruption.