Understanding India's Performance in Global Rankings

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India often receives low ranks in international surveys like the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). These low scores trigger major political and policy debates across the country.
Critics describe these poor scores as evidence of policy failure. In response, the government frequently questions the methodologies behind these rankings.
This debate highlights a central paradox. India is a fast-growing economy, a global leader in digital payments, and a major space power, yet it scores poorly in global indices.

Global rankings combine factual data with subjective judgments. India shows rapid economic and digital progress, but its ranks in perception-based indices remain low. These scores highlight genuine local issues alongside flawed rating methods.

Global indices do not follow a single uniform design. They exist along a wide spectrum depending on whether they use hard factual data or qualitative opinions.

Operational Mechanism: These indices rely on direct and verifiable counts without applying qualitative judgments.
Case Example: The Henley Passport Index measures global mobility by counting how many destinations an Indian passport holder can visit without a visa.

Operational Mechanism: These frameworks combine measurable physical facts with methodological choices and mathematical weighting.
Case Example: The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) measures real parameters like air and water quality. However, its final ranking depends on choices like prioritizing current per capita emissions over historical emissions.

Operational Mechanism: These frameworks rely heavily on expert surveys, qualitative evaluations, and institutional judgments.
Case Example: The World Press Freedom Index and the Global Happiness Index evaluate countries using liberal-democratic standards created by Western institutions.

Standardized Frameworks: Global models apply the same baseline to all countries without considering the socio-economic conditions of developing nations.
Ignoring Historical Footprint: Environmental rankings focus on present pollution trends instead of cumulative historical carbon emissions. This approach ignores the UNFCCC principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR).
Excessive Data Compression: Summarizing a diverse country of 1.4 billion people into one national score hides complex local realities.

The Dual Reality: India achieves remarkable progress in digital public infrastructure like UPI and Aadhaar, space missions by ISRO, and green energy. At the same time, it struggles with air quality, waste management, and human development indicators.
Implementation Gaps: India has strong laws and policy frameworks, but ground-level execution across different states remains uneven.

Institutional Framing: Western think tanks and universities produce most global indices, which can reflect pre-existing international biases.
Perception Versus Capability: Perception-based rankings often fail to show actual progress in infrastructure, industrial output, and poverty reduction.

Handling Unfavorable Ranks: China challenged rating methods when necessary, but stayed focused on national growth. India should offer evidence-based critiques while engaging constructively with global metrics.
Directing National Resources: China built strong hard capabilities in manufacturing, research, infrastructure, and exports. India must focus on strengthening its core metrics like GDP, industrial output, and green transition.
Shaping Long-Term Narrative: China changed global perceptions by building strong economic and industrial capabilities. India will naturally shift global narrative through tangible economic and social achievements over time.

Adopt a Balanced Approach: India should avoid rejecting indices outright or accepting them uncritically. Policymakers must use the underlying data to fix real governance gaps.
Strengthen National Statistics: Institutions like MOSPI must improve internal data collection systems to produce timely, transparent, and accurate data.
Promote Domestic Benchmarking: Agencies should use national tools like the SDG India Index and Good Governance Index by NITI Aayog to drive positive competition among states.
Engage in Methodological Diplomacy: India should partner with Global South nations to demand index methodologies that respect development context and equity.
Focus on Building Hard Capabilities: Government policy must prioritize tangible targets like industrial growth, infrastructure, literacy, and healthcare. Stronger baseline capabilities will automatically improve global rankings.

Global rankings offer useful comparisons, but they reflect specific rating choices rather than complete judgments on complex societies.
A practical national strategy involves fixing real developmental gaps while steadily building strong economic, technological, and social foundations.