Do it yourself

  The latest edition of the World Economic Forum’s global risk report ( The Global Risk Report 2022 ) offers some valuable and interesting insights into the current global risk perceptions and areas of concern. The key message is that “A divergent economic recovery from the crisis created by the pandemic risks deepening global divisions at a time when societies and the international community urgently need to collaborate to check COVID-19, heal its scars and address compounding global risks.” The clear and present global challenges include “Supply chain disruptions, inflation, debt, labour market gaps, protectionism and educational disparities are moving the world economy into choppy waters that both rapidly and slowly recovering countries alike will need to navigate to restore social cohesion, boost employment and thrive. These difficulties are impeding the visibility of emerging challenges, which include climate transition disorder, increased cyber vulnerabilities, greater barr...

In the recent Global Competitiveness Report, the World Economic Forum examined how different countries are traversing on the road to recovery from the health and economic shock of Covid-19 pandemic, which “impacted the livelihoods of millions of households, disrupted business activities, and exposed the fault lines in today’s social protection and healthcare systems”. On the positive side, the shock is believed to have accelerated “Fourth Industrial Revolution on trade, skills, digitization, competition and employment”. There is large section of observers who reject World Economic Forum in general and its research in particular, as mostly elitist and prejudiced against developing economies. I do not have any strong objection to the views of this section of people. However, I do occasionally study the work done under the aegis of WEF and find it useful for identifying the problem areas and directions for further study. I read the Global Competitiveness Report 2020 also with this persp...