BANGALORE: India has established lead over China and Russia in the latest report of World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). The report which looks at the efforts taken by economies round the world to encourage entrepreneur culture in their countries, sees India move to 43rd position compared to 45^th, last year.

India leads its immediate neighbor China (54^th), Russia (62nd⁾ position and Brazil  (66^th) in the report.

The report attributes the gain to country doing well in indicators related to innovation and sophistication of firm operations, as well as in the adoption of technologies from abroad.

“The quality of the business environment in India has improved tangibly in recent years. Goods, labour and financial markets are making gains in efficiency and it is particularly encouraging to see substantial improvements in the quality of public institutions and the underlying institutional climate in such areas as property rights, the operation of the judicial system and other indicators which capture essential aspects of building a sound investment climate", said Augusto Lopez-Claros, chief economist and head of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Network.

However, the report points to number of weaknesses that impedes the country's progress to in becoming most competitive economy globally "High budget deficit, one of the highest of the world along with lack of appropriate infrastructure and shortcomings in health services and education are impeding country's growth as a competitive business player" says the report while calling for efforts from country to sustain high budget deficit and deal with shortcomings in the provision of health services and education.

Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are the world’s most competitive economies according to the report. Denmark, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom complete the top ten list, but the United States shows the most pronounced drop, falling from first to sixth.

The rankings are drawn from a combination of publicly available hard data and the  results of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, tog ether with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the Report.

This year, over 11,000 business leaders were polled in a record 125 economies worldwide. The survey questionnaire is designed to capture a broad range of factors affecting an economy’s business climate that are critical determinants of sustained economic growth