Davos

Moving up the ranks, India has emerged as the second most trusted country in the world in terms of faith reposed on its institutions even as globally trust levels have fallen, says a survey.

As the world’s rich and powerful gather in the Swiss resort of Davos, a study by public relations firm Edelman has found that general level of trust in institutions among college-educated people around the globe are at levels not seen since 2009 in many of the markets it surveyed.

Trust in institutions in India has improved sharply in 2015 with the country moving up three notches to the second place among 27 nations.

While the number of “truster” countries are at an all-time low of six in 2015 including UAE, India, China and Netherlands, the number of “distruster” countries has grown significantly to 13 including Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, South Africa and Italy.

Brazil, Malaysia, France and the US are among the 8 “neutral” nations as per the trust index, the survey said.

India, which last year saw BJP-led NDA government storming to power at the Centre, stands tall.

According to the report, an “alarming evaporation of trust” has happened across all institutions, reaching the lows of the Great Recession in 2009.

Trust in government, business, media and NGOs in the general population is below 50 per cent in two-thirds of countries, including the US, UK and Germany, it said.

From fifth most trusted in 2014, India has now become the second-most trusted in 2015 with a score of 79 per cent in the barometer. The study has put India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image on the first page.

The list is topped by UAE with 84 per cent trust.

Indonesia (78 per cent), China (75 per cent), Singapore (65 per cent) and Netherlands (64 per cent) are the others that have recorded highest levels of trust.

Globally, the overall trust index was down a percentage point from the previous year at 55 per cent. Trust levels in major developed economies, such as the United States, Germany and France, hovered around 50 per cent.

The barometer shows waning trust in non-governmental organisations, media and business. Trust in government recovered somewhat but politicians remain the most distrusted group assessed at 48 per cent. Interestingly, trust in politicians in India has grown to 82 per cent in 2015 from 53 per cent a year ago.

Government was the only institution to gain trust in 2015, driven by improvements in 16 countries, including India.

In terms of NGOs in India, trust was almost flat at 74 per cent from 75 per cent. Also, while trust in media has fallen in more than half of the countries, India appears to have scored well on that front too with 76 per cent in 2015 vis-a-vis 71 per cent in 2014. .

India ranks 78th globally in talent competitiveness

Davos

Indicating acute shortage of skilled workforce, India has been ranked 78th globally in terms of talent competitiveness of its human capital, while Switzerland has topped the charts.

In the list of 93 countries — compiled by INSEAD business school in partnership with Adecco and Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore (HCLI) — Switzerland is followed by Singapore, Luxembourg, Denmark, United States and Canada in the top five.

Sweden and the UK are ranked 6th and 7th respectively, with Denmark (8th), Australia (9th) and Ireland (10th) making it to the top-10.

The annual Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), that measures a nation’s competitiveness based on the quality of talent it can produce, attract and retain said that “despite being the largest regional economy, India (78th) ranks fourth amongst its peers, and also happens to be the lowest-ranked BRICS economy”.

“With its population of over 1.25 billion, 50 per cent of which is below 25 years of age, the country has a huge latent pool of talent, for which issues relating to competitiveness will only grow increasingly more important over the coming years,” the report said.

The rankings were dominated by European countries, with only six non European countries in the top 20: Singapore (2), the United States (4), Canada (5), Australia (9), New-Zealand (16) and Japan (20).

The twenty top-scoring countries in the GTCI 2014 are all high-income countries. “This is hardly surprising, since rich countries tend to have better universities and a greater ability to attract foreign talents through higher quality of life and remuneration, making them more talent competitive,” the report said.

The study, which focuses on the topic of ‘growing talent for today and tomorrow’ highlighted the importance of ’employable skills’ and vocational education amid changing labour markets and rising unemployment,

It further noted that the employment impact of ICT is particularly acute in emerging markets where ICT-related positions have strong indirect and spillover effects.

In India four indirect employment opportunities were created by every new job in the ICT-enabled business processing industry, it said.

“Perhaps one of the most interesting findings this year is the renewed importance of vocational education. It’s not just higher education that is important today – vocational learning needs to be integrated into secondary education,” Paul Evans, The Shell Chaired Professor of Human Resources and Organisational Development, Emeritus, at INSEAD, and co-editor of the report said.

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