Global governance index, Pg1.

Key Highlights:

• On September 25, 2025, the Indian presidency and the Research Advisory Committee of Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) discussed developing an international governance index.
• The IIAS will collaborate with the World Bank, OECD, and UN DESA to develop the index.
• The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute ranked India 100 out of 179 countries on the “liberal democracy index” in 2025.
• The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) criticized the methodology of indices like the Freedom in the World Index and V-DEM index in 2022.

Detailed Insights:

• The initiative to develop a new governance index comes amid concerns over India's declining rankings in existing global indices.
• The EAC-PM has raised concerns about the transparency and accountability of institutions that create perception-based indices.
• Chief Economic Adviser has called for greater transparency in the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), which are used by credit rating agencies.
• The WGI covers over 200 economies and includes six indicators: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption.
• The IIAS annual conference in 2026 will incorporate the topic of developing the governance index into its agenda.
• The IIAS has 31 member countries, including India, Japan, China, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, indicating a diverse range of perspectives.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Global Governance Index: A tool to measure and rank countries based on various governance indicators.
• Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI): A composite index by the World Bank covering six dimensions of governance.
• Electoral Autocracy: A regime that combines nominally democratic institutions with authoritarian practices.