India slips to 89th rank in global talent competitiveness: Report

India's vocational skill market has regressed with time.

Published in Jan 2016 in an e-HR web portal

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index highlights a slump in availability of skilled labour force as India has slipped 11 places to rank 89th on the global index of talent competitiveness. The list has been topped by Switzerland followed by Singapore, Luxembourg, the US and Denmark in the top five positions. In 2015, India was ranked 78th on the GTC Index. 

The list was researched and compiled by INSEAD business school in association with Adecco Group and the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore. Among the five BRICS countries, India came last in the list while China topped.

Even though India and China remain a one of the top exporters of talent, the study suggests many developing countries that have prioritized higher education over vocational education.

“In both China and India, skill shortage in vocational talent shows up clearly in the GTCI scores, as it also does in South Africa.

“This last year has seen a cooling off in the growth of emerging markets, and indeed we note the relative decline in the talent competitiveness of all BRICS countries except Russia,” the study said.

It has also being observed that Brazil shows a decline in skill improvement and China continues to strengthen in growing talent.

“In India, there are no signs of an improved regulatory and market landscape to enable the ‘Make in India’ campaign. This gap in terms of vocational skills, however, is not limited to BRICS and emerging economies: GTCI data shows that it extends to a number of high-income countries, such as Ireland, Belgium or Spain,” the study noted.

According to the report, one of the critical areas of focus for countries such as China and India is to attract talent from other countries.

“China has a low performance in terms of Attract (71st), and India shows one of the worst scores (103rd) — particularly affected by the lack of international students and, unlike China, by not being able to attract and retain global talent (so being more at risk of a brain drain despite the connection with the diasporas working the IT sector),” it added.

The report also suggests that the improvement of skill market in India would significantly impact the talent pool not just in the region but globally.