Human Freedom Index 2020 and India

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The Human Freedom Index 2020 was released on 17th December 2020. India was ranked at 111th out of 162 countries. It fell 17 spots down as it was at 94th position on 2019.

About

• It is a worldwide ranking of civil, economic and personal freedom.
• New Zealand, Switzerland and Hong Kong are the top three nations in the list.
• India’s ranking is ahead of China (129) and Bangladesh (139).
• India scored 6.30/10 in personal freedom and 6.56/10 in economic freedom. The average Human Freedom score was 6.43.
• US and UK are sharing the same spot of 17th rank.
• Syria is the last country in the list.
• The report finds that there is strong relationship between Freedom and Prosperity but has also found that there is unequal distribution of Freedom.
• The gap between most free countries and least free countries is also increasing.
• It has strong relationship with democracy too with the exception being Hong Kong. However Hong Kong’s score will noticeably decline in near future.

It was reported that India has fallen on several global freedom indexes.

• Democracy watchdog Freedom House’s report in October has shown decline in internet freedom in India for a third straight year in 2019-20.
• The Global Economic Freedom Index 2020 report released in September showed India dropped to 26 spots from 79 to 105.
• The World Press Freedom Index report was released in April showed that India has dropped 2 spots from 140 to 142 out of 180 countries and territories.

Human Freedom Index

It is published by Cato Institute in America and Fraser Institute in Canada. 76 indicators were taken into account related to personal, civil and economic freedoms to rank 162 countries from 2008 to 2018. Notable decline was seen in the personal freedom since 2008.