Polity & Governance: Report and Indices

Freedom in the World Report 2020

Freedom House, a US-based watchdog

• The Report tracks global political and civil liberties.
• Top 3 Countries: Finland, Norway and Sweden
• Bottom 3 Countries: India, Timor-Leste and Tunisia.
• India-83rd / 195
• Derives its methodology from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
• The report treats “Indian Kashmir” as a separate territory.
• India among the countries categorized as “Free”, with only Tunisia receiving a lower score.
• Worst score decline among the world’s 25 largest democracies

• Political rights category: India scored 34 out of 40 points.
• Political rights indicators: such as the electoral process, political pluralism and participation and government functioning.
• Civil liberties category: India scored 37 out of 60 points.
• Civil liberties indicators: related to freedom of expression and belief, associational and organisational rights, the rule of law and personal autonomy and individual rights.
• Reason for decline in India’s rank: Scrapping of Article 370, NRC, CAA, the crackdown on mass protests, Hindutva ideology.

NCRB Report 2019 

National Crime Records Bureau

• NCRB was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task force (1985).
• Total Cases: An increase of 3.6% in the registration of cases over 2016.
• Delhi witnessed the highest crime rate in the country.
• Offences against the State: There is a rise of 30% in cases recorded as “offences against the State.”
• ‘Offences Against the State’ include offences against the State (under sections 121, 121A, 122, 123 & 124-A IPC) and offences promoting enmity between different groups (under sections 153A & 153 B IPC)
• Crime against women: There is an increase in crime against women from 3,793 per million in 2016 to 3,886 per million in 2017.
• Top states: UP > Maharashtra
• Cybercrime: There is an increase of more than 75% cyber cases in 2017 compared to 2016. Bengaluru topped and was followed by Mumbai and Jaipur.
• Crime against Children: Crimes against children increased by nearly 28% in 2017 compared to 2016 crimes.
• Crime against Dalit: There was an increase of 6% cases against Dalit.

INDEX

World Press Freedom Index 

Reporters Without Borders

• Norway ranks first for the fourth consecutive year.
• Criteria: Pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, and the quality of the infrastructure that supports the production of news and information.
• Bottom: North Korea, which is at 180th position.

Global Terrorism Index

Institute for Economics and Peace

• India-worse affected than Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Palestine and Lebanon.
• Deaths from terrorism fell for the fourth consecutive year.
• Four parameters:
  • Number of terrorist incidents 
  • Number of fatalities 
  • Number of injuries 
  • Total property damage 
• Most affected: Afghanistan > Iraq
• India- 7th worst affected- 2020, 8th-2019
• Pakistan- 5th rank
• GTI scores are directly used in the Global Peace Index, the Global Slavery Report.
• Indirectly used in World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness and Global Competitiveness Indices and compilation of Safe Cities Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
• NITI Aayog questioned the credibility of the report.

Municipal Performance Index

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs

• It will assess the performance of municipalities on five enablers-Service, Finance, Planning, Technology and Governance.
• It will help Municipalities in better planning and management, filling gaps in city administration and improving the liveability of cities.
• All participating cities have appointed nodal officers to collect and collate the relevant data

Corruption Perception Index

Transparency International

• It ranks 180 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
• Top: Denmark and New Zealand
• Bottom: Somalia
• India: ranked 80th
• Rank 80this also shared by China, Benin, Ghana and Morocco. Pakistan-120th
• Transparency International is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to fighting corruption.
• It was founded in 1993 and is based in Berlin, Germany.
• Corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals.
• Issues in control of corruption: Even in democracies, such as Australia and India, unfair and opaque political financing and undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups, resulting in stagnation or decline in control of corruption.

Good Governance Index 

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

The good governance index is a uniform tool across states to assess the status of governance and the impact of various interventions taken up by the state government and union territories.

Objective:  

1. To provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs.
2. To enable states and UTs to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance.
3. To shift to result-oriented approaches and administration.

Sectors which are part of GGI:

1. Agriculture and Allied Sectors,
2. Commerce & Industries,
3. Human Resource Development,
4. Public Health,
5. Public Infrastructure & Utilities,
6. Economic Governance,
7. Social Welfare & Development,
8. Judicial & Public Security,
9. Environment and
10. Citizen-Centric Governance.

Composite Ranking:  The states and UTs are divided into three groups -- big states, north-east & Hill states and UTs.

Big States category: Tamil Nadu > Maharashtra > Karnataka

North-East and Hill States category: Himachal Pradesh >  Uttarakhand >  Tripura

UTs: Puducherry > Chandigarh > Delhi

Sector-wise ranking:

Environment sector: Top-West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu

Bottom: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.

Judicial and public security: Tamil Nadu tops while West Bengal is at the bottom.

Economic governance: Karnataka tops

Health: Kerala tops in the public health sector

Agriculture: Madhya Pradesh tops

Social welfare: Chhattisgarh tops

Commerce and industries: Jharkhand tops

Rule of Law index

World Justice Project

• The ROL Index is a quantitative assessment tool designed to offer a comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law.
• It is the world’s leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law, covering 128 countries and jurisdictions.
• The index measures how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide.

Indicators of Rule of law Index:

Rule of Law Index measures countries’ rule of law performance across eight factors

1. Constraints on Government Powers.
2. Absence of Corruption.
3. Open Government
4. Fundamental Rights.
5. Order and Security.
6. Regulatory Enforcement.
7. Civil Justice.
8. Criminal Justice.

India’s performance:

• Rule of Law Index ranked India in the 69th position. “India has never been ranked even among the top 50 in the Index.
• Nepal is leading in South Asia regions in the overall rule of law scores were.

Global trend:

• More countries declined than improved in overall rule of law performance for the third year in a row, continuing a negative slide toward weakening and stagnating rule of law around the world.
• At a global level, countries experienced the biggest declines over the past year in the areas of Fundamental Rights (54 declined, 29 improved) and then in Constraints on Government Powers.
• Civil Justice showed the most positive movement over the previous year.
• Top: Denmark, Norway, and Finland topped the WJP Rule of Law Index rankings in 2020.
• Bottom: Venezuela, Cambodia, and DR Congo had the lowest overall rule of law scores—the same as in 2019.
• The first time, the United States fell out of the top 20 countries.
• Countries with the strongest improvement in the rule of law were:
  • Ethiopia ( driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers and Fundamental Rights) and
  • Malaysia (driven primarily by gains in Constraints on Government Powers, Fundamental Rights, and Regulatory Enforcement). 
• The most downward movement in the rule of law was seen in Cameroon.