India plans to push again towards “agenda-driven”, “neo-colonial” nation rankings produced by international businesses on matters like governance and press freedom, a key advisor to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi instructed Reuters in an interview on Friday.
Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Modi’s Financial Advisory Council, stated India has begun to lift this problem at international boards. He stated the indices have been being compiled by a “tiny group of think-tanks within the North Atlantic,” sponsored by three or 4 funding businesses which can be “driving a real-world agenda.”
“It’s not simply narrative constructing in some subtle manner. This has clear direct affect on commerce, funding and different actions,” Sanyal stated.
India ranked lower than Afghanistan and Pakistan in the new World Press Freedom Index launched by Reporters With out Borders. It was under Pakistan and Bhutan in an instructional freedom index by V-Dem Institute.
Over the previous 12 months, India has in numerous conferences pointed out the flaws in strategies used to compile international indices utilized by establishments just like the World Financial institution, World Financial Discussion board (WEF) and the United Nations Growth Programme (UNDP), Sanyal stated.
The “World Financial institution is concerned on this dialogue as a result of it takes these opinions from these think-tanks and successfully sanctifies it by placing it into one thing referred to as the world governance index,” Sanyal stated.
The World Financial institution, WEF, Reporters With out Borders and V-DEM Institute didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. UNDP stated it will reply shortly.
Sanyal stated the rankings additionally get hard-wired into decision-making via environmental, social and governance (ESG) norms and sovereign rankings. Multilateral growth banks supply subsidised loans to ESG-compliant initiatives.
“The concept of getting some ESG norms shouldn’t be the issue in itself. The issue pertains to how these norms are outlined and who certifies or measures compliance to those norms,” he stated. “As issues are at present evolving, growing nations have been utterly unnoticed of the dialog.”
The matter is being taken up by the Cupboard Secretariat, which has held greater than a dozen conferences on the problem this 12 months, a authorities official stated. The Cupboard Secretariat and finance ministry didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
India has stated it plans to be an advocate for growing nations underneath its G20 presidency. Sanyal didn’t say if India has flagged the problem of nation rankings with the G20.
“There are different growing nations who’re additionally involved about this as a result of successfully it is a type of neo-colonialism,” he stated, including that involved ministries have been requested to determine benchmarks and interact repeatedly with rankings businesses.
A few of the upcoming indices being watched out by India are monetary growth index by Worldwide Financial Fund, gender inequality and human growth indices by UNDP, logistics efficiency and worldwide governance indicators by the World Financial institution, sources stated.
