Notwithstanding the 9-plus economic growth rates, rising stock prices and swelling ranks of the rich, India still figures at the bottom of the table in the first survey to rank nations in terms of prosperity.

The only consolation is that India is not alone. It features at the 46th slot, followed by Bangladesh (47), Pakistan (48) and Egypt (49) in the survey to rank nations in terms of prosperity. Of course, they are better than Zimbabwe which stands last in the 50th position.

The survey — covering 50 nations and conducted by Legatum, a privately owned Dubai-based international investment firm, through its Legatum Prosperity.

Index  saw a three-way tie between Norway, Sweden and the United States for the title of the most prosperous nation, followed by Austria at the 4th position.

Canada and New Zealand sharing the 5th and Denmark at the 7th. While both Finland and Germany were tied at the 8th position, Switzerland was ranked tenth.

Position puzzling
“India's low position may seem puzzling, given the country’s achievement of democracy and Indians’ oft-noted spiritual strength,” says Legatum, in a press release. But these strengths, it seems, cannot make up for an extreme deficiency in health.

“Health is the second-strongest determinant of life satisfaction, trailing only freedom of choice, and India has one of the three lowest values in our study,” it explains.

Accordingly, Legatum has defined national prosperity as the well-rounded combination of both these factors.
The most important drivers of high levels of life satisfaction are freedom of choice, good health, equality of opportunity, strong religious faith, high levels of income, favourable climate, political rights and civil liberties, low unemployment rates and low divorce rates.

Data unavailable
Though India figures among the bottom overall, Legatum points out that complete data are not available for every country in the world, so there are many countries that may rank far below these countries.

Material wealth and life satisfactions constituted two key drivers for prosperity of nations according to the study.