All reports and rankings are not perfect, but broadly this is how it works:

Negative = Flawed methodology, Anti-India conspiracy
Positive = Dynamic leadership

Thread 1/n

**World Press Freedom Index ranking - 150/180**

‘Govt rejects ranking on Press Freedom Index, attacks methodology’ (2021)

2/n

**Global Hunger index rank - 101/116**

‘Govt rubbishes Global Hunger Index Ranking, questions methodology’

3/n

**EIU Democracy Index - India’s rank falls, dubbed as ‘flawed democracy’**

‘EIU not sharing information on democracy index, rankings arrived at without consulting any government agencies’

4/n

**World Inequality Report terms India as 'poor and very unequal country'**

‘Report flawed, methodology questionable’

5/n

**USCIRF terms India as a 'Country of Particular Concern'**

‘India rejects US religious freedom report as biased’ (2020)

6/n

**Lancet editorial in 2021: ‘At times, PM Narendra Modi's Govt has seemed more intent on removing criticism on Twitter than trying to control the pandemic’**

Former Health Minister calls it an ‘imbalanced editorial’ and refutes The Lancet with a cat dp blog

7/n

**WHO: India Covid deaths, nearly 10 times official count**

‘India questions WHO’s methodology’

8/n

**Swedish V-Dem institute and US Freedom House reports criticize India**

‘Hypocrisy’

9/n

Who cares about these rankings anyway? Well only as long as it is good news. Remember the much celebrated Kearney FDI confidence Index?
There has been silence all around ever since India’s rank started to fall. India is no longer in top 25.

10/n

We never heard of the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index again when India’s rank fell 9 places to 44 in the next cycle. Silence in the media as well.

11/n

**First-ever ‘annual’ Kotler award that was never repeated after 2019**

‘Historic’

12/n

**Poll in a hitherto unheard-of magazine**

‘Proud moment’

13/n

To sum up,

Negative = Flawed methodology,
Positive = Dynamic leadership

On one hand, rejecting negative reports, and on the other, constantly looking for international validation

Oh and not to forget ready templates for leaders and cheerleaders to copy-paste.

14/14

How could I forgot to add the 2015 instance when the govt dismissed a Moody’s Analytics’ Economic Outlook report calling it personal opinion of a junior economist and rapping the media for its coverage. Moody’s stood by its report. 15/n