Lok Sabha Question No. 2309 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-11
Subject: Impact of Population
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: P.R. SUNDARAM

(a)  whether  India  has  been  ranked  22 nd position  among  the  best  country  to  live  in  as declared  in  the  recently  held  meeting  of  the  World  Economic  Conference  and  if  so,  the details thereof;

(b)  whether  income  and  GDP  of  the  country  stays  behind  in  India  because  of  over population in the country resulting low rank and if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereon; and

(c) the criteria to estimate and calculate the position?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI JAYANT SINHA)

(a) Yes, Sir. India has been ranked 22 nd out of 60 countries in the Best Countries report, 2016, summary of which is available at http://www.usnews.com/news/bestcountries/articles/methodology .  The  countries  were  ranked  based  on  the  data  from  a proprietary perception survey developed by U.S. News, BAV Consulting and the Wharton School  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  sample  of  the  survey  included  16,248 respondents - general population, informed elite and business decision makers - across 36 countries in four regions: the Americas, Europe, Middle East/North Africa and Asia. The 60 countries  were  selected  based  on  a  composite  performance  ranking  of  key  business, economic and quality of life data. To be included in the Best Countries rankings, a country had to be ranked in the United Nation's Top 100 Countries in terms of 2013 GDP, the World Bank's Top 100 Countries in terms of international tourism, the  United  Nation's Top  150 Countries in the 2014 Human Development Index and the United Nation's Top 100 Foreign Direct Investment Inflows 2013 report.

- (b) To determine the rank, the qualitative attributes from the perception data were used to categorise  sub  rankings  for  the  countries.  The  weight  of  each  sub  ranking  score  was correlated to 2014 gross domestic product purchasing power parity per capita, a measure of inclusive prosperity, as reported by the International Monetary Fund. However, the score on  the  attributes  will  determine  the  sub  ranking  scores  which  will  add  to  the  aggregate score for ranking. Therefore, the low rank cannot be attributed to one single variable like the population  of  the  country.  The  rankings  are  based  on  how  global  perceptions  define countries in terms of a number of qualitative attributes and may differ from actual ground realities.
- (c) Each country was scored on each of the 65 country attributes based on a collection of individual  survey  responses  to  arrive  at  the  rankings.    The  qualitative  attributes  for  each country were grouped into nine sub rankings to rank the Best Countries. The nine country attributes for the sub rankings are: Adventure, Citizenship, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship,  Heritage,  Movers,  Open  for  Business,  Power  and  Quality  of  Life.  The

relative  importance, or  weight, given to each of the nine sub rankings was based on the magnitude  of  that  sub  ranking's  correlation  with  per  capita  purchasing  power  gross domestic product.

To arrive at a country's rank, each country received nine sub ranking scores by averaging its scores for the country attributes grouped into that sub ranking. A country's overall score reflects  the  weighted  sum  of  its  sub  ranking  scores.  The  sub  ranking  and  overall  scores were rescaled so that the top country in each category received a value of 100, and others were calculated as a proportion of that top score.

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