India slips to 89th rank

Davos: Reflecting an acute shortage of skilled labour force and difficult business conditions, India has slipped 11 places to rank 89th on a global index of talent competitiveness, a list which has been topped by Switzerland.

Switzerland is followed by Singapore, Luxembourg, the US and Denmark in the top five positions on the annual Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTC) released today by INSEAD business school in partnership with Adecco Group and the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore.

India's ranking is worst among the five BRICS countries, with China leading the pack with a global rank of 48.

Last year, India was ranked 78th on the index that measures a nation's competitiveness based on the quality of talent it can produce, attract and retain. It is released every year on the first day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting here.

"In India, there are no signs of an improved regulatory and market landscape to enable the 'Make in India' campaign. This gap in terms of vocational skills, however, is not limited to BRICs and emerging economies: GTCI data shows that it extends to a number of high-income countries, such as Ireland, Belgium or Spain," the report noted.

According to the report, another challenge for countries such as China and India is to attract talent from abroad, particularly in the context of large emigration rates of high-skilled people in the past.

"China has a low performance in terms of Attract (71st), and India shows one of the worst scores (103rd) - particularly affected by the lack of international students and, unlike China, by not being able to attract and retain global talent (so being more at risk of a brain drain despite the connection with the diasporas working the IT sector)," it added.

After pumping billions of dollars into internet start-ups in the last 24 months, global investors are cutting that flood back a trickle as dreams of huge online sales are clouded by soaring valuations and still-distant profits.

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi lines up a four-year, $1.5 billion government fund to help startups create jobs, entrepreneurs fear that may prove a drop in the ocean. Venture capitalists have already tightened purse strings as ripples from China's economic slowdown lap around the world.

According to a new report by CB Insights and KPMG, venture capital investments in India's start-ups nearly halved to $1.5 billion in fourth-quarter 2015 from July-September. Faltering start-ups could mean India missing out on huge potential: Bank of America Merrill Lynch has forecast Indian e-commerce will surge to $220 billion by 2025 from about $11 billion last year.