While India may score high with the World Bank on growth, the story on governance is very different.

A report on Governance Indicators released at the IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Singapore puts India at abysmally low levels. In a database of 213 countries that measures the political, economic and the institutional aspects of governance, the World Bank report ranks India at half or below half on most indicators.

The six facets of governance, each based on a number of underlying indicators itself, are Voice and Accountability, Political Stability, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule or Law and Control of Corruption. A score is given for each indicator based on a number of sources, and then each country is placed in one of the six groups based on its percentile.

The measures are based on surveys and margins of error are reported. They reflect the perception of a large number of respondents about the conditions prevailing in the country.

However, a look at where India gets placed as a consequences of the responses raises questions about the correctness of the use of such surveys for cross-country comparisons.

Consider this. Voice and Accountability looks at conditions like civil liberties, political rights, freedom of press and institutional. The report puts India in 2005 in the 56th percentile — the percentage of the peer group that India’s score surpassed. India is also in the 56th percentile on the rule of law indicator. This is measured crime, kidnapping of foreigners, enforcability of private contracts, crime, tax evasion, black markets and variables like judicial independence.

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