V-Dem’s democracy index rates India at its lowest since 1975

Why in the News?

India is in the news after the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed serious concern over reported large-scale violations by law enforcement agencies and the exclusion of voters, particularly Muslims, during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The issue has gained further attention because the V-Dem Institute has also classified India among countries experiencing gradual autocratisation, reporting a decline in its electoral democracy score.

About the V-Dem Institute

1. Host and status: Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is an independent research institute based at the Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
2. Method: It uses a multidimensional approach to conceptualising and measuring democracy, aggregating ratings supplied by country experts rather than issuing a single composite judgement.
3. Five principles measured: The dataset is organised around the electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative and egalitarian principles of democracy.
4. Flagship output: It publishes an annual Democracy Report, releasing the index in March and naming the countries it assesses as autocratising or democratising.

About the Electoral Democracy Index

1. What it measures: It scores how far the ideal of electoral democracy is achieved in a country, on a scale from 0 to 1.
2. Its conceptual base: It builds on the polyarchy concept, which requires elected officials, free and fair elections, freedom of expression, alternative sources of information, freedom of association and inclusive suffrage.
3. Regime classes: V-Dem sorts countries into closed autocracy, electoral autocracy, electoral democracy and liberal democracy.
4. The comparator to know: The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index is a separate exercise, scoring 60 indicators from 0 to 10 across five categories and classifying India as a flawed democracy.

India in the latest reading

1. The score is a 50 year low: India’s electoral democracy index score was 0.38 in 2025, below the 0.39 recorded in 1975 under Emergency rule.
2. The ranking: India stands 106th among 179 countries, against Denmark at the top with a score of 0.9 in 2025.
3. The classification: V-Dem lists India among countries autocratising slowly, with a systematic dismantling of democratic institutions.
4. The decline is not new: India’s performance on the index has fallen gradually since 2009.
5. The parameters at 50 year lows: Judicial accountability and judicial corruption, autonomy of the Election Management Body (EMB), impartial administration by public officials, media freedom and academic freedom are all at their lowest in 50 years.
6. A parallel United Nations finding: The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in its first review of India since 2007, recorded grave concern over reports of large-scale violations by law enforcement officials and over the exclusion of large numbers of voters, Muslims in particular, under the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

[2016] Which of the following is/are the indicator/ indicators used by IFPRI to compute the Global Hunger Index Report?

1. Undernourishment

2. Child stunting

3. Child mortality

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1, 2 and 3

(d) 1 and 3 only