Why in News?

•  The sixth consecutive year in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2019, announced in Singapore.

Highlights:

•  The theme of ‘Entrepreneurial Talent and Global Competitiveness’ attempts to identify the ways in which companies, countries, and cities can foster entrepreneurial talent which makes up a critical component of competitiveness and innovation, and will become even more so in a fast-paced world of digitisation and globalisation.
•  The report also reveals that cities rather than countries are developing stronger roles as talent hubs and will be crucial to reshaping the global talent scene.

India’s performance:

•  India remains the laggard in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) region and was ranked 80.
•  It performs better than its lower-income peers when it comes to growing (48th) talent, primarily by virtue of the possibilities for Lifelong Learning (38th) and Access to Growth Opportunities (41st).
•  An above-average Business and Labour Landscape (38th) and Employability (34th) raise the scores of the pillars related to Enable (70th) and Vocational and Technical Skills (72nd) that are otherwise hampered by the remaining sub-pillars.
•  India’s biggest challenge is to improve its ability to Attract (95th) and Retain (96th) talent.
•  There is a need to address its poor level of Internal Openness (116th)—in particular with respect to weak gender equality and low tolerances towards minorities and immigrants— and its disappointing showing in Lifestyle indicators.

Global findings:

•  In this sixth edition, Switzerland continues to lead the 2019 Global Talent Competitiveness index, while Singapore and the United States come in second and third respectively.
•  Singapore continues to occupy the top spot in Asia Pacific. It is the highest-ranked country in three of the six pillars – Enable, Attract, and Global Knowledge Skills.
  • Yemen has finished at the bottom of this year’s index at 125th, just below Congo (124th) and Burundi (123rd).