Goa has secured the top spot, replacing Delhi in the city-state category this year in terms of competitive index.
According toa report released by a global think tank, Goa shows strengths in context for strategy and rivalry for businesses that operate in the region as well having strong supporting and related industries.
This has been due the credit availability to businesses that have operated in the city-state.
Among innovative driven economies, Maharashtra has emerged as the most competitive state followed closely by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Among transition economies, Punjab leads the ranking followed by Himachal Pradesh. Karnataka takes top spot among investment-driven economies followed by Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Among the evolving/changeover economies, Orissa is the most competitive followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Uttar Pradesh takes top spot the emerging economies ranking followed closely by Bihar.
The Institute for Competitiveness said this in its sixth edition of the India State Competitiveness Report 2014.
The report categorizes the states under seven heads of – City States, Innovation Driven Economies, Transition Economies, Investment Driven Economies, Changeover Economies, Emerging Economies and North Eastern Economies. The stage of economies helps compare states at a similar level of development of the economy. This is helpful in understanding the different agglomerations affects and take policy actions for improving the overall level of competitiveness of a state within India.
The study is based on four pillars of competitiveness that are, factor conditions, demand conditions, context for strategy and rivalry and supporting and related industries.
These four pillars are interlinked with one another and are instrumental in determining the overall competitiveness of an economy or any geographical location. These four pillars in turn have 12 sub-indices, which have more than 350 indicators that are used to assess competitiveness.
The report and its findings were also discussed at the sidelines of the 2014 Global Innovation Summit and Annual Meeting of GFCC (The Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils).
The India Council on Competitiveness is a member of the GFCC and works for improving India’s competitiveness. The India Council was recently created by the Institute for Competitiveness in collaboration with the US Council of Competitiveness.
The State Competiveness Report is beneficial to both corporates as well as state governments. For corporates the main benefit lies in fundamentally understanding their location options as well as re-directing their choices accordingly.
For state governments the study suggests policies that local and state governments can employ to improve growth and competitiveness within a specific region. The broad level strategies that all states can employ to improve competitiveness include having a focus on better governance, greater investments in infrastructure, bettering the education outcomes and improvements in healthcare delivery.
Finally, this year a new category of north eastern economies was introduced as it was strongly felt that the north eastern states of India need to be studied as a regional grouping. Among the north eastern economies, Sikkim emerged as the most competitive state.
Commenting on this year’s report and ranking, Dr. Amit Kapoor, Honorary Chairman, Institute for Competitiveness said, “The remedy to the growth conundrum of the India lies in the enhancement of the competitiveness quotient of the states, for they collectively comprise the whole nation. The focus of states and policy makers should be on wealth creation that is economically viable, environmentally friendly and at the same time addressing the concerns of all the communities involved. This is essential for making India globally competitive in all sectors of the economy.”
The most critical element that comes out of this year’s report is that states’ will have to create unique visions basis their individual resources and implement policies for enabling that vision. These individual policies will in turn help build resilience and enable India to become more competitive as a nation and help in its growth, development and prosperity in the years to come. (ANI)