PremiumNew Delhi: India remains the laggard in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) region and was ranked 80 even as Singapore retained its leading position in the Asia-Pacific region for the sixth consecutive year in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2019, announced on Tuesday in Singapore.
India scores well on growing talent, which is the only pillar where the country is positioned above the median. It performs better than its lower-income peers when it comes to growing talent, primarily by virtue of the possibilities for Lifelong Learning and Access to Growth Opportunities. An above-average Business and Labour Landscape and Employability raise the scores of the pillars related to Enable and Vocational and Technical Skills that are otherwise hampered by the remaining sub-pillars, the report said.
Notwithstanding the scope for improvement across the board, India’s biggest challenge is to improve its ability to Attract and Retain talent. Above all, there is a need to address its poor level of Internal Openness —in particular with respect to weak gender equality and low tolerances towards minorities and immigrants—and its disappointing showing in Lifestyle indicators.
This year’s report with the theme of ‘Entrepreneurial Talent and Global Competitiveness’ attempts to identify the ways in which companies, countries, and cities can foster entrepreneurial talent which makes up a critical component of competitiveness and innovation, and will become even more so in a fast-paced world of digitisation and globalisation.
In the 2019 GTCI, six Asia-Pacific countries rank in the top 30: Singapore takes the lead in the region (2nd globally), followed by New Zealand (11th), Australia (12th), Japan (22nd), Malaysia (27th) and South Korea (30th). Top-ranking countries share several characteristics, including having talent growth and management as a central priority, openness to entrepreneurial talent, open socio-economic policies as well as strong and vibrant ecosystems around innovation.
Singapore continues to occupy the top spot in Asia Pacific. It is the highest-ranked country in three of the six pillars – Enable, Attract, and Global Knowledge Skills. It is also one of the strongest performers with respect to the pillar on Vocational and Technical Skills. However, it ranks low in Retain, signifying its relative weakness in retaining talent.
