New Delhi: In a working paper, the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) claims that “severe issues” with these perception-based indices’ methodology are to blame for the drop in India’s rankings on a number of international opinion-based indexes. Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the EAC-PM, and Akanksha Arora have put together a working paper titled “Why India does poorly on global perception indices: Case study of three opinion-based indices.”
The Freedom in the World Index, V-DEM indices, and EIU Democracy Index were three perception-based indices that were examined in the paper. According to the article, the opinions of a small number of unidentified specialists form the foundation of these indices. It further claims that the questions being utilised are illogical and impossible to respond objectively. There are some inquiries that ought to be made but are not.
The Working Paper added that not all nations should employ the same questions that are used in these indexes as a gauge of democracy. It stated that the World Bank should promote greater transparency and accountability from these institutions because these indices are inputs into the World Governance Indicators.