India has been ranked considerably low at 105th position globally on a worldwide Human Capital Index, which measures countries’ ability to nurture, develop and deploy talent for economic growth and was topped by Finland.
WEF in its report said that the country has optimized just 57 per cent of its human capital endowment placing it in the top of the bottom quartile of the Index. The report stated that though the country’s educational attainment has improved over the different age groups, its youth literacy rate is still only 90 per cent which is at 103rd position in the world, behind other leading emerging markets.
In 2013 before Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office, India was ranked 78th slot on a global Human Capital Index, which ranks countries on the basis of economic potential of their labour force, while Switzerland has topped the ranking.
India ranks much below China’s 71st position while Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are also placed higher on the index released today by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) in this Chinese city at its Annual Meeting of New Champions — also known as ‘Summer Davos’ summit.
Further, India also ranked poorly on labour force participation, partially due to one of the world’s largest employment gender gaps. However, there was some positive too, in the report India has got better rankings of 39th on quality of education system, staff training with rank 46 and ease of finding skilled employees with 45th rank. Moreover, the WEF report also stated that India had the largest share at nearly 78 million in the global distribution of tertiary degree holders.
On the global front, Finland, Norway and Switzerland hold the top three positions, utilising around 85 per cent of their human capital. Japan and Sweden moved up to 4th and 5th places, followed by New Zealand, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada and Belgium in top ten. Last year, India was ranked 100th out of total 124 countries included in the 2015 index.
