In News India moved 4 places up from 48th spot to 44th in recently released World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR) 2019. According to the global report the country has improved in terms of future readiness and knowledge to adopt and explore digital technologies. "India advanced four places to 44th position in 2019, with the biggest improvement in the technology sub-factor level, holding the first position in telecommunications investment," according to the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2019 (WDCR). WDCR 2019 – Highlights The largest improvements were seen in the ranks of Asian countries like India, China, Korea, and Indonesia. The top five countries in this year’s ranking remained the same as in the year 2018. The list was topped by the United States followed by Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland. South Korea and Hong Kong entered the top 10 for the first time. Taiwan moved to 13th place while China jumped from 30th to 22nd place in the rankings. Indonesia rose from 62nd rank in 2018 to 56th this year. •Knowledge factor - India fared best in Research and Development productivity by publication and graduates in sciences. •Technology factor – India fared best, especially in the telecommunications investment and IT & media stock market capitalization. India has to still, however, work on enforcing contracts, mobile broadband subscribers, wireless broadband and internet users. •Future Readiness- India fared best in world robot distribution and needs to work more on tablet possession. This year, two new variables related to robotics were introduced in the calculation of the WDCR: “industrial robot” to measure the total number of robots in operation, and “robots in education and R&D” worldwide. The data is provided by the International Federation of Robotics. World Digital Competitiveness Rankings The rankings are done by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Centre based in Switzerland. It measures the readiness and capacity among 63 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies as an important driver for economic transformation in government, business and wider society. The IMD World Competitiveness Center (WCC) is a research center at IMD in Switzerland with 30 years of research expertise in competitiveness. To evaluate an economy, WDCR examines three factors: •Knowledge - the capacity to understand and learn the new technologies •Technology - the competence to develop new digital innovations •Future readiness - the preparedness for the coming developments Technology not only affects how businesses perform but also how economies function and prepare for the future. Governments around the world are investing heavily in their digital economy to enhance value creation and prosperity. Top ten rankings -2019 (Global and the Asia Pacific)

Source: Economic Times, IMD website, Business World

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