India ranked 78, down 3 places, in Global Connectedness Index

Moneycontrol Bureau
The 2016 DHL Global Connectedness Index ranked India at 78 out of 140 countries overall in 2015, down slightly from 75 in 2013.For a country to be globally connected, it must have both large international flows relative to the size of its domestic economy (what the index calls ‘depth’) and its international flows must be distributed globally rather than narrowly focused (what the index calls ‘breadth’).

On the depth dimension of the index, India ranks 133 out of 140 countries. Large countries tend to be more domestically-oriented than small countries. However, even after controlling statistically for India’s population, per capita income, location, and other structural characteristics, its depth still comes in below expectations. This underscores India’s unusually large headroom to deepen its global connectedness, of particular interest since the depth dimension of the index has been associated with faster economic growth.

India ranks much higher on the breadth dimension of the index, at 21 out of 140 countries. Its breadth ranks are even higher when focusing only on information (8 of 85) and trade flows (9 of 140). High breadth, however, is not always advantageous, and in India’s case it reflects the small proportion of India’s international flows involving neighboring countries in South and Central Asia. There are obvious reasons for this, but it does come at a cost: there are substantial efficiencies that come from strong ties to proximate and similar countries.

Mumbai a Globalisation Hotspot This year's report also features two new city-level globalisation indexes. Mumbai ranks 13 out of 113 cities on the Globalization Hotspots index, which compares cities’ international flows to their internal activity (paralleling the depth dimension of the country-level DHL Global Connectedness Index). On the Globalization Giants index, which tracks the absolute sizes of cities’ international flows, Mumbai ranks 46.