India has been ranked 22nd out of 60 counties in the Best Countries Report 2015, summary of which is available at http://www.usnews.com/ness/best-countries/articles/methodology. The countries were ranked based on the data from a proprietary perception survey developed by U.S. News, BAV Consulting and the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. The sample fo the survey included 16,248 respondents – general population, informed elite and business decision makers – across 36 countries in four regions: the Americas, Europe, Middle East/North Africa and Asia. The 60 countries were selected based n a composite performance ranking of key business, economic and quality of life data. To be included in the Best Countries rankings, a country had to be ranked in the United Nation’s Top 100 countries in terms of 2013 GDP, the World Bank’s Top 100 Countries in terms of international tourism, the United Nation’s top 150 countries in the 2014 Human Development Index and the United Nation’s Top 100 Foreign Direct Investment Inflows 2013 report.

To determine the rank, the qualitative attributes from the perception data were used to categorise sub rankings for the countries. The weight of each sub ranking score was correlated to 2014 gross domestic product purchasing power parity per capita, a measure of inclusive prosperity, as reported by the International Monetary Fund. However, the score on the attributes will determine the sub ranking scores which will add to the aggregate score for ranking. Therefore, the low rank cannot be attributed to one singe variable like the population of the country. The rankings are based on how global perceptions define countries in terms of a number of qualitative attributes and may differ from actual ground realities.

Each country was scored n each of the 65 country attributes based on a collection of individual survey responses to arrive at the rankings. The qualitative attributes for each country were grouped into nine sub rankings to rank the Best Countries. The nine country attributes for the sub rankings are: Adventure, Citizenship, Cultural Influence, Entrepreneurship, Heritage, Movers, Open for Business, Power and Quality of Life. The relative importance, or weight, given to each of the nine sub rankings was based o n the magnitude of that sub ranking’s correlation with per capita purchasing power gross domestic product.

To arrive at a country’s rank, each country received nine sub ranking scores by averaging its scores for the country attributes grouped into that sub ranking. A country’s overall score reflects the weighted sum of its sub ranking scores. The sub ranking and overall scores were rescaled so that the top country in each category received a value of 100, and others were calculated as a proportion of that top score.

This was stated by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Ranking methodology: perception based attribute scores weighted by correlation with per capita purchasing power GDP determine country standings. Inclusion required meeting multiple quantitative selection thresholds, after which countries were scored via a proprietary perception survey on sixty five qualitative attributes grouped into nine subrankings; each subranking score was an average of its attributes and the overall score a weighted sum of subrankings. Weights derived from each subranking's correlation with per capita purchasing power GDP, and final scores were rescaled so the top country in each category received a value of 100, with others expressed as proportions.