Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday hit out at the Narendra Modi-led government over India's decline in various global indexes. The parliamentarian cited data from the Human Freedom Index, the Global Economic Freedom Index and the UNDP Human Development Report to underscore his point.
"Whatever wins the BJP votes, it's not government performance," he jibed. Tharoor noted that these statistics were from the BJP government's second term in office, pointing out that India's rank had been higher still during the preceding UPA administration.
"India has slipped from 94 to 111 on the Human Freedom Index (we were at 75 under UPA), from 79 to 105 in the Global Economic Freedom Index and from 129 to 131 in UNDP's Human Development Report," he added.
Released at the end of 2020, the Human Freedom Index ranked India at at 111 out of 162 countries. The listing used data from 2008 to 2018 and covered 76 indicators of personal, civic and economic freedom. India ranked ranked 110 when it came to personal freedom, 105 on economic freedom, and garnered an overall score of 6.43 out of 10.
Months earlier, in September 2020, India had dropped 26 spots on the Global Economic Freedom Index, to rank at the 105th position. The report which measures the ‘economic freedom’ enjoyed by people in a country is released annually by the Fraser Institute.
India's standing was also affected in the UNDP Human Development Report 2020, dropping to the 131st rank.