<\/p>\n
Narendra Modi\u2019s government has approached a major Indian think tank to develop a homegrown democracy ratings index that could help it counter recent downgrades<\/a> in rankings issued by international groups that New Delhi fears could affect the country\u2019s credit rating, Al Jazeera<\/a><\/em> reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n The Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which works closely with the Indian government on multiple initiatives, is preparing the ratings framework, according to two people closely involved in the discussions on the project.<\/p>\n According to the report, the index is expected to hew more closely to New Delhi\u2019s narrative than Western-based rankings that Modi\u2019s team has criticised.<\/p>\n \u201cA review meeting was held by NITI Aayog in January, and it was decided that ORF will be releasing Democracy Rankings in a few weeks,\u201d a top government official said, requesting anonymity.<\/p>\n The new rankings system could be released soon, the official said. How soon, though, is unclear \u2014 including whether the index might be unveiled before India\u2019s upcoming national elections, announced last Saturday. India will vote in seven phases starting April 19, with votes counted on June 4. Modi is a strong favourite to return to power for a third term.<\/p>\n The index is expected to be closer to New Delhi\u2019s narrative than Western-based rankings<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n A source familiar with the development told Al Jazeera<\/em> that \u201cthe Democracy Index being prepared by ORF went through a peer review process and expert analysis on the methodology a few weeks ago \u2026 it is likely to be released soon\u201d.<\/p>\n ORF, which co-hosts the Raisina Dialogue \u2014 India\u2019s equivalent of the Munich Security Conference and the Shangri-La Dialogue, other major geopolitics, and geo-economics conclaves \u2014 with the country\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs, did not respond to queries from Al Jazeera<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Raisina Dialogue was held this year between Feb 21 and Feb 23. The NITI Aayog, the government\u2019s own public policy think tank that has been shepherding internal discussions within the Modi government on global rankings, said it was not preparing the index \u2014 but did not confirm nor deny whether it was involved in helping an external think tank prepare one. \u201cNITI is not developing any Democracy Index,\u201d a spokesperson for the body told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government of India monitors select global indices [by various global entities] to drive reforms and growth in the country.\u201d Yet emails and the minutes of meetings held between government agencies over the past three years, accessed and reviewed by Al Jazeera<\/em>, point to a growing urgency within the Modi administration on challenging setbacks to India\u2019s democracy credentials, including through a report prepared by India.<\/p>\n This exercise began right after international indices such as US-based non-profit Freedom House downgraded India\u2019s status from a free democracy to a \u201cpartially free democracy\u201d in 2021. The V-Dem Institute, based in Sweden, classified India as an \u201celectoral autocracy\u201d.<\/p>\n Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Narendra Modi\u2019s government has approached a major Indian think tank to develop a homegrown democracy ratings index that could help it counter recent downgrades in rankings issued by international groups that New Delhi fears could affect the country\u2019s credit rating, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday. The Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which works closely with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/22110948f7deb12.jpg?r=111008","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n