Global Rankings
India ranks 12th globally according to US News and World Report, following the United States, China, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel.
It might come as a surprise to some that India is ranked lower than the UAE and Saudi Arabia in terms of power in the Indo-Pacific region. Similarly, Japan falls behind South Korea in this ranking. However, the US News and World Report recognizes six of the most powerful countries in Asia, excluding India.
India scores 46.3 out of 100 in this ranking, with its information technology services, business outsourcing services, and software workers showing great potential. The country’s highest scores are recorded in the “heritage” and “cultural influence” segments.
The Reasons Stated
“India’s huge population and its low per capita income appears to have adversely affected India’s overall ranking. “ India has a fast-growing, diverse economy with a large, skilled workforce. But because of its population, it’s also one of the poorest countries in the world based on income and gross national product per capita”.
The US News and World Report has released a power ranking, which is based on five attributes that determine a country’s power. These attributes are “A leader,” “Economic influence,” “Political influence,” “Strong international alliances,” and “A strong military.” The ranking model was created by BAV Group, a unit of global marketing communications company WPP, and researchers led by Professor David Reibstein from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, in partnership with US News & World Report.
Expert Analysis
Incidentally, Australia’s Lowly Institute’s last (and latest) Asia’s Power Index, 2023, has shown India ranking 4 out of 26 for comprehensive power, with an overall score of 36.3 out of 100. India was behind Japan, China, and the United States as an Indo-Pacific nation.
But this ranking showed India’s overall score declining every year since 2018. In 2022, India lost 1.4 points compared to 2021, it said.
According to this survey, India performs best in “the future resources measure,” placing third behind only the United States and China. By contrast, India’s lowest-ranked measure is “economic relationships,” a result of the country sitting outside the regional economic integration agenda.
In fact, India’s better scores in “diplomatic influence” were not enough to compensate for the losses on its refusal to join economic groupings in the region.
In 2023, India had the greatest gains in cultural influence (+2.5). However, it lost the most points in resilience (−4.9). Elsewhere, it improved in diplomatic influence (+2.2) while trending down in economic relationships (−3.2), defense networks (−2.6), economic capability (−2.2), future resources (−1.0), and military capability (−0.7).
The “Power Index” highlighted India’s widening “power gap” over the last five years. The power gap was defined as a country’s actual power as compared to its potential given its available resources. This analysis revealed India to be an underachiever, performing less well than would be expected based on its size and available resources.
The Indian Perspective
However, the analysis pointed to India’s great potential. “Assessing India’s likely future influence in Asia, then, is challenging. Its sheer size means the country is almost certainly destined to be a major power behind only the United States and China. Although New Delhi is outside the US alliance network, its interests in balancing China overlap with those of Washington, including through the Quad partnership with Australia and Japan”, it said.
Incidentally, there has also been another project that has measured the power of the leading countries of the world, focusing, though, on military strength. According to Global Firepower, a data website specializing in global defense information, India happens to be the world’s fourth most powerful military leader behind China, Russia, and the United States.
Other Rankings
Here, India is followed by South Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Italy in the group of 10 strongest militaries. Significantly, France, which last year occupied the 9th position, is out of the group of the first 10. It occupies the 11th position.
Turkey is the new addition in the first 10. South Korea has jumped to the 5th position from the 6th, interchanging the palace with the UK. Pakistan has come down to the 9th position from the 7th it had last year.
These nations are said to have a strong military heritage and are continuously enhancing their military might, positioning themselves as strong contenders for the title of the most powerful army in the world.
In fact, Global Firepower’s Military Strength Rankings 2024 evaluates 145 countries, considering over 60 individual factors like troop numbers, military equipment, financial stability, geographic location, and available resources.
It takes into account the potential war-making capability across land, sea, and air fought by conventional means. These elements contribute to a PowerIndex score, with lower scores indicating stronger military capabilities.
If all the aforesaid three power indicators are taken into account, then five important points emerge.
One, the United States remains the world’s foremost power in every sense of the term.
Two, China may be rising very high, but it seems unlikely in the foreseeable future that it will be able to close the gap with the United States or be as dominant as the United States once was.
Third, despite all the Western efforts and attempts, Russia plays a significant role in global geopolitics, leveraging its vast natural resources, scientific and technological prowess, and military capabilities.
Fourth, India is recognized as having great potential to become a global player. However, as of now, it is an under-performer, contributing unevenly to the global power edifice.
Fifth, if any Asian power is really rising comprehensively apart from China, it is South Korea.
