According to an Australian think tank, India has moved up four places to the 137th rank among 163 countries on the 2017 Global Peace Index. Iceland remains the most peaceful country, followed by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal and Denmark. Syria remains the least peaceful country in the world, a position it has held for the past five years. Also on the bottom of the list are Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia.
“This has largely been due to a reduction in level of violent crime, driven by increased law enforcement. Meanwhile, unrest in Indian-administered Kashmir in mid-2016 raised tensions between India and its neighbour Pakistan, with the number of deaths from external conflict increasing in both countries,” the report published by the Sydney-based Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) said. India is among the countries with the biggest decreases in the number of deaths, along with Sri Lanka, Chad, Colombia and Uganda.
The report provides a comprehensive analysis on the state of world peace. It said that amid continuing social and political turmoil, the world continues to spend enormous resources on creating and containing violence but very little on peace. Countries displaying most significant growth in heavy weapons capabilities over the last 30 years are primarily in unstable regions where there are high tensions with neighbouring countries.
