## Colophon tags:: url:: https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices %% title:: Inside Modi Govt’s War Room to Whitewash Global Indices type:: [[clipped-note]] author:: [[@reporters-collective.in]] %% ## Notes > While bristling at the ratings, what the minister didn’t reveal was that her ministry had over the past year made multiple attempts at lobbying with the publishers of the Global Hunger Index to bump up India’s ranking. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/LZevavf2Ee-g1JOIWM9MGQ/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > Inside Modi Govt’s War Room to Whitewash Global Indices — [view in context](https://hyp.is/MDWsrvf2Ee-VYnssSMvKaA/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ date:: [[2025-03-03]] > The Reporters’ Collective investigation has revealed that it is part of a “whole-of-government approach” devised by the Prime Minister’s Office to closely monitor 30 global indices and reach out to agencies that publish the indices to convince them to change their parameters – what they measure –  if India is doing badly in their reports, which it often does. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/TfzEtvf2Ee-2DfuTXeRs1w/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > To exclusively track these indices, a nodal unit named “Global Indices for Reform and Growth” (GIRG) has been set up. It functions as a perception management agency, complete with a media outreach cell, to manage how India is being talked about and present a rosier picture.Documents reviewed by The Collective show at least 19 Union ministries and departments have been tasked to closely monitor what these global indices are saying about India – from the level of hunger in the country, health and education, press freedom to the state of democracy.The Indian missions abroad too, have been roped in to speak to the publishers of the indices and report back to the government. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/88p0nPf2Ee-r3o_eFnaNSw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > Some criticisms by the Indian government of the biases in global indices, especially against countries in the global south, are valid and are echoed by independent experts. But how the government chooses to respond to its rankings in these indices reveals its priority. The focus is on massaging the data to make India look better at any cost possible rather than fixing the underlying problems. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/GQbxDvf3Ee-94Huy3yXcvw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > There are frailties too. All 30 indices monitored by the Modi government are published by agencies in the developed world. The publishers’ priorities can be influenced by the dominant ideologies in the region they are based in. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/aK1mXPf3Ee-N9CMpGI1_Kw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > Another concern is the reliability of data used to score the countries. Index publishers source some of the data from organisations such as the United Nations, which in turn source it from countries’ official data sources. The agencies standardise data across countries, some of which are vulnerable to manipulation as unscrupulous or dictatorial governments may be tempted to fudge numbers to paint a positive picture. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/ebQfcvf3Ee-078MuiGgQaQ/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > Each sub-parameter was further assigned to other ministries that would then be responsible for it — [view in context](https://hyp.is/yBgxgPf3Ee-sAWe9DUi0kQ/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > Each index was assigned to a ministry or a department based on jurisdiction. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/yCSdvPf3Ee-qCJ_Z-q9Vcw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > Once this expansive network, which also included autonomous institutions such as the Election Commission of India, SEBI and the Reserve Bank of India, was set up, the second layer of operations kicked in.Each ministry would then look into how India was being scored in the index they were assigned and work to fix it. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/yPkqHvf3Ee-1ICPkIlXfZQ/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > The modus operandi was to find numbers that discredit the parameter India has performed poorly in rather than solve the problems the rankings highlighted. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/zxAgBvf3Ee-g36PLbSrFbw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > The ministry responsible for tracking the index began compiling all such arguments and then triggered the lobbying machinery. The government gets in touch with the publishing agency to force them to “course correct”. For that it could use Indian missions abroad to talk to the publishers. Documents show the missions talked to publishers of Global Gender Gap Index, Democracy Index and Global Competitiveness Index. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/-KIz8Pf3Ee-OOe8XyDvNDQ/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > The fact that an Indian High Commission Office had engaged with publishers on the Democracy Index was reported earlier by Hindustan Times.* — [view in context](https://hyp.is/LCkNFvf4Ee-xFM8uFPxv_A/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ Story by Anisha Dutta about Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index from 2023. > At times, the government tracked down India-based individual researchers working on such indices, as it did when the Democracy Index ranked the country at 51 among 167 countries in 2019. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/OlAUFvf4Ee-qz9upg2lLlw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ 😶 > The government’s National Informatics Centre Services Inc. which develops government websites and software was roped in to set up a dedicated dashboard. They brought in Silver Touch Technologies Limited, to develop the dashboard. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/cQ80Mvf4Ee-N-wPulq7Osw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ As the next paragraph confirms, this was the same company flagged by Facebook for Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour. > A question was raised in Parliament about India’s disastrous ranking. The government replied on February 4, 2020, that India has made “consistent improvement” when compared to its score nearly two decades ago. A day later, then Union Women and Child Development Secretary Rabindra Panwar wrote to the heads of Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide complaining about India’s poor performance in the index. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/82I_Lvf4Ee-pmN9NoXCtug/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ 🤦‍♂️ > Publicly, the government has dismissed the Global Hunger Index, calling it a version of “child health index” rather than a true measure of hunger. The government’s argument is that if the index was a true measure of hunger, then the state’s massive programmes such as the National Food Security Act, which feeds 80 crore people daily, and other schemes for vulnerable groups, would have been counted and earned it a better rank. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/NIe5XPf5Ee-E28OFHCsExg/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ Not clear to me whether the Food Security Act is completely discounted or accounted for in part, but I think this point does matter to some extent. That said, the fact that India is doing so poorly on the measured parameters is damning in itself, and goes beyond technicalities over whether it should be called Hunger Index or 'child health index' > While the government bashed the Global Hunger Index publicly, officials in an internal meeting to find ways to influence the index, were candid about how India was performing. In a November 2020 meeting, officials of Niti Aayog, department of food and public distribution, ministry of health, ministry of women and child development and ministry of education said: “The prevalence of wasting, stunting and under 5 mortality rates are significantly high irrespective of the improvement of India’s rank from the previous year.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/8wtXMPf5Ee-pXPuthk_j5Q/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) > The department of food and public distribution further poked holes in the official argument that touts public distribution system (PDS) as an antidote to hunger. “Under Food Security Act more than 67% of the population is covered. However, the data is based on the 2011 census, and therefore the unavailability of data has emerged as the main concern which is delaying the calculation of the correct estimates,” they noted.“The targeting of the PDS is not happening efficiently, as the states are free to choose their selection criteria due to which many sections that must be included under PDS are not being included,” they added.Yet, the government found fault with how the two non-profits were measuring hunger, saying they focused too much on children and used factors like stunting and wasting, which measure nutrition levels, not hunger. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/Jft7SPf6Ee-_vm89yfrMYw/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ Callback to earlier comment about Food Security Act being accounted for. > with its rank slipping from 94 in 2020 to 111 in 2023 under the Global Hunger Index. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/lTih1Pf6Ee-58wNf1FrcTA/www.reporters-collective.in/trc/inside-modi-govts-war-room-to-whitewash-global-indices) ⬆️ Sorry, I am confused, earlier on the report referenced a rank of 102 in 2020? "Panwar pointed out that if the index relied on more recent Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey and Sample Registration System data, India’s ranking would improve from 102 to 91."