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India’s bid to rub shoulders with the mighty China and propel its image in the global platform has taken a severe beating, with the Global Competitive Report downgrading India’s position from 49th last year to 51st. This report is especially damaging as it comes ahead of India's biggest international event, the Commonwealth Games, which has already been plagued by delays and rampant corruption.

China, a country which India always likes to be compared with, is way ahead. It has moved up to 27th position from 29th previously.

Among the top ten in global competitiveness are Switzerland, which retained the top slot in the pecking order, followed by Sweden, Singapore, the US, Germany, Japan, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark and Canada. The report called Switzerland a model country which has the most effective public institutions, an independent judiciary and a public sector that is highly accountable.

The report added that India failed to improve on any of the parameters on which the study was based. India ranked poorly, notching 71st place in diversion of public money and 88th in how much it trusts its politicians.

It ranked 57th in wasteful expenditure by the government and 72nd in corruption, 95th in burden of government regulation, 127th in cost of terrorism and 67th in costs for crime, among others. India stood at 42nd place in transparency of government, 68th in reliability of public services and 76th in efficacy of corporate boards.

But the most notable rankings that show that we are still among the backward nations are life expectancy, where India stands almost at the fag end of the table at 109th (out of a total of 139 nations) and in primary education it was placed at a dismal 98th.

Can we say that the root cause of this dismal show is owing to the widespread corruption that our country is facing today? A microscopic look will  reveal that a bigger monster is the ability to tolerate corruption. Unless and until we come forward (in unison) to address the latter, India will continue to slip in Global Competitive rankings and no cosmetic surgery will give us any image makeover.