Talent, Productivity and the Global Talent Competitiveness Index

The prosperity of any country is determined by the productivity of an economy, which is measured by the value of goods and services produced per unit by nation’s human capital and natural resources.

 Productivity supports high wages, a strong currency, and a high standard of living. Competitiveness is then measured by productivity. 

Many countries like India can enhance their prosperity if they improve their productivity. Improving productivity will lead to a rise in the value of goods produced which in return will improve the local income. Analyzing the drivers of productivity across countries is one of the oldest vocations of economic research.

The global talent competitiveness index prepared by the INSEAD business school in partner with Tata communication and Adecco Group was released on the First day of the World Economic Forum Annual meeting 2019.

What is Global talent Competitiveness index?

Launched for the first time in 2013, the global talent competitiveness index is an annual benchmarking report that measures the ability of countries to compete for talent.

The global competitiveness index has been measuring the factors that drive long-term growth and property for over four decades which in returns helps the policymakers of different countries in identifying the global and domestic challenges to be addressed.

This index is widely used among different countries to measure their competitiveness with rest of the world.

It provide unique insight into the drivers/indicators or productivity of different countries. The index comprises of both the macroeconomic and micro economics/ micro-business aspects of competitiveness.

The Global Talent Competitive Index measures how countries and cities grow attract and retain talent, ranking 125 countries and 114 cities across all groups of income and levels of development.

Highlight of the index 2019

This year’s Global Talent Competitiveness Index covers 93% of the population, focuses on entrepreneurial talent and global competitiveness. 

To withstand turbulent markets organizations need to find ways to foster entrepreneurial talent. It can be seen that a collaborative, open approach leads to greater success in government education and business.

What is the Global finding in the index?

Switzerland followed by Singapore, the US, Norway and Denmark in the top five on the list. The talent gap between higher and lower income countries has widened over the last five years.

Countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa are seeing progressive erosion of their talent base. China’s ranking fell by two places to 45. Even then China is the best performer among BRICS countries. 

The report cities rather than countries are developing stronger roles as talent hubs and will be crucial in reshaping the global talent scene.

The top ranked city in the index is Washington DC, followed by Copenhagen, Oslo, Vienna and Zurich.

The study found that entrepreneurial talent has become a key differentiator in relative talent competitiveness.

India up one place on ranking at 80^th

India has moved up one position to rank 80^th on the Global Talent Competitive Index, but remains lagged behind among BRICS nations, though India’s performance was better than its lower-income peers when it comes to growing talent 48^th and access to growth opportunities 41^st. 

In spite of the scope for improvement across the board, India’s biggest challenge is to improve its ability to attract 95^th and retain 96^th talent.

India has lagged behind to address its poor level of internal openness 116^th in particular with respect to weak gender equality and low tolerance towards minorities and immigrants and its disappointing showing in lifestyle 112^th indicators.

Reasons why India don’t grow drastically

There are various reasons behind the slowdown of India’s rank in the index. One most important factor is corruption which is considered as the most problematic factor for doing business in India. Access in financing, followed by tax regulations. The other major is reason educational inadequacy in the workforce/laborers.

India’s poor ranking health and primary education pillar is the second worst ranking to the technological readiness

India has an enormous infrastructure gap, but it can be bridged by cooperation between the public private sectors. In India refusal to give payments or delay in giving payments by the government will lead to breach of contractual agreements which in turn will have a bad influence on future investment decisions. 

One of the other constraints includes access to financing and waiting for a long period of time to get returns from the investment. This affects financiers and investors who are looking for a long term and steady returns.

India is doing well in the field of innovation but is leaving a large section of the society behind as they are not technologically equipped. 

As it can be seen from the reports that innovation is not at par with the technological readiness of the individuals and the firms in India. Technological readiness is relatively low as compared to innovation.

Disruptive inequalities

The technological advancement has in a way polarized the labour market, huge drop in the number of mid-skilled joins and increase in both low and high skilled jobs. In many advanced economies, income inequality has increased.

Conclusion

Even though with all these limitations/barriers in the improvement of ranking in Global competitiveness country in south Asia. The world Economic forum has appreciated India’s effort in information and communication technology sector. 

India can go far ahead if deep rooted problem can be addressed.  India needs to change its methodology and adapt new ways for growth in every sector. Then only India can get better position in the index.