India ranks 103rd on Global Human Capital Index, ahead of Bangladesh and Pakistan

India has been placed at the 103rd rank on the World Economic Forum's Global Human Capital Index, which Norway has topped.

Among the South Asian countries, India falls behind Sri Lanka (70) and Nepal (98) and is just ahead of Bangladesh (111) and Pakistan (125). The country has the lowest rank among the BRICS nations — the Russian Federation is at 16th place, followed by China at 34th, Brazil at 77th, and South Africa at 87th place.

WEF’s 'Human Capital Report' ranks 130 countries on how well they are developing and deploying their talent. The index takes a life-course approach to human capital, evaluating the levels of education, skills, and employment available to people in five distinct age groups, starting from under 15 years to over 65 years says a WEF report.

India stands at the bottom of the heap among the G20 nations, the report said. India also ranks poorly on labour force participation, due in part to one of the world's largest employment gender gaps. However, it received solid rankings on education quality, staff training, and economic complexity.

India was at 105th position on the list last year, while the top spot was taken by Finland, pushed to second place this year. The Global Human Capital Index 2017 has ranked 130 countries on how well they are developing their human capital on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best) across four thematic dimensions — capacity, deployment, development, and know-how — and five distinct age groups or generations — 0–14 years; 15–24 years; 25–54 years; 55–64 years; and 65 years and over — to capture the full human capital potential profile of a country.

The WEF list takes into account "the knowledge and skills people possess that enable them to create value in the global economic system" to measure the 'human capital' rank of a country. Other countries in the top 10 are — Switzerland (3rd), the United States (4th), Denmark (5th), Germany (6th), New Zealand (7th), Sweden (8th), Slovenia (9th), and Austria (10th).

With inputs from IANS.

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