Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: India is one of the least peaceful countries in the world, placing a lowly 143 out of 162 nations on the 2014 Global Peace Index (GPI) rankings released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
The Index, which was released on Wednesday, gave India an average GPI score of 2.571 out of 5, with scores of 2.4 out of 5 in the categories of Militarization and Society & Security, a 3 out of 5 in the area of Domestic and International Conflict, and a 4 out of 5 on the Political Terror scale. The score is another decline for India, with IEP listing a number of factors that have led India to become less peaceful over the last year.
The report blames Maoist movements as the main factor for rising hostile tensions within India, leading to potential instability. IEP also says that the splitting of Andhra Pradesh and the formation of Telangana, India’s 29th official state, also led to a decrease in peacefulness over the last year. Additionally, factors such as skirmishes with neighboring countries, mostly Pakistan, have contributed to lowering the score.
India’s increasing religious diversity was also a factor, according to the IEP, as did the sheer amount of political corruption that India perpetually faces. The report makes no mention of whether or not India’s new BJP-led government signals a change for the better, as the data collected for the report was taken before May’s historic elections.
“The economic impact of containing and dealing with the consequences of India’s levels of violence was estimated to cost the national economy $177 billion in 2013,” says the IEP report. “This is equivalent to 3.6% of India’s GDP, or $145 per person.”
It adds: “If India could improve its overall levels of peace, the dividend that would flow from this would substantially improve the country’s economic growth rates.”
Overall, the report says, the increase in peace instability will adversely affect India’s economy. On average, countries with less peace tend to lose about $1,350 per person; when totaled internationally, that means the world lost $9.8 trillion from its economy due to lack of peace, which is more than twice the GDP of all of Africa and more than 11% of the entire world’s GDP.
“The world has become less peaceful over the last year, mainly due to a rise in terrorist activity, the number of conflicts fought and the number of refugees and displaced people,” says the report. “500 million people live in countries at risk of instability and conflict, 200 million of whom live below the poverty line.”
The most peaceful countries in the world are Iceland, Denmark, and New Zealand, the report revealed. Syria has now become the world’s least peaceful country, taking over the dubious designation from previous holder Afghanistan. Georgia, Cote d’Ivoire and Libya made the biggest improvements in domestic peacefulness over the last year.