India ranks 4th on Asia-Pacific Power Index; called ‘giant of future’

India has found itself at an impressive fourth rank out of 25 countries on the power index in the Asia-Pacific region, PTI reported. India has been described as a "giant of the future" though it lags behind in categories like defence networks and economic relationships, the report added. The power index measures the countries' overall power.

The Lowy Institute Asia Power Index included 25 countries in its study and they included as far-away countries like Pakistan, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and also the US. The Lowy Institute is a think-tank based in Sydney, Australia, and it is its first-ever index.

A country's overall power is its average calculated across eight measures of power and they include military capacity, economic resources, future trends, resilience, economic relationships, defence networks, diplomatic and cultural influences, the PTI report added.

It also said while Japan is a smart power, India is a giant of the future and while the US continues to be a strong power in Asia, China - the rising superpower - was rapidly reducing its gap with the US.

"Three of the world's four largest economies are in Asia, and the fourth, the United States, is a Pacific power. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will live in Asia, compared with just over a tenth in the West," the PTI report quoted the institute as saying.

While India did well in categories like cultural influence and future trends (ranked third in both), it fared ordinarily in economic relationships (where it ranked seventh) and defence networks (rank 10th), the report added.

According to Lowy, economic relationships are assessed in terms of the capacity of countries to exercise influence through economic interdependencies that are measured through investment ties, trade relations and economic diplomacy, PTI reported.

Defence networks, on the other hand, are defence partnerships that serve as force multipliers of military capacity - judged through assessments of alliances, non-allied partnerships and transfer of arms, the report added.