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India has made rapid strides in competitiveness in the last 12 months, according to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2004 of the International Institute of Management Development, a leading Swiss business school. India has been ranked 34th among 60 nations studied in the report, up 16 notches from 50th last year.
This is India's best ranking in the last five years. Its ranking had slipped sharply from 41 in 2002 to 50 in 2003.
Mainland China, the country India is most often compared with, too has improved its ranking from 29 in 2003 to 24 in 2004. In the last one year, India has overtaken countries like Greece, Czech Republic, Slovenia and South Africa in competitiveness, as per the report.
Apart from the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report, IMD's yearbook is considered the most authentic ranking of countries as per their global competitiveness. The last WEF report had placed India on the 56th spot in its growth competitiveness index rankings and 38th in its business competitiveness index rankings.
As in the last four years, United States of America tops the IMD yearbook in 2004 also. It is followed by Singapore, Canada, Australia and Iceland, in that order. Luxembourg, which was ranked 2nd in 2003, is on the 9th spot in the 2004 list. The IMD yearbook is published every year since 1989.
IMD came into being in January 1990, as the successor to IMI, founded in Geneva by Alcan in 1946, and IMEDE, founded in Lausanne in 1957 by Nestlé. IMD is a provider of executive education for large and medium size international businesses, and for individuals.
The World Competitiveness Yearbook 2004 includes 60 national and regional economies.
It uses 323 different criteria, grouped into four competitiveness factors, to arrive at the rankings. The data for the survey is drawn from an opinion survey of 4,166 executives.