•  The Global Human Capital Index sees India finish 103rd among 130 countries, behind Sri Lanka and Nepal, and just ahead of Bangladesh and Pakistan.
• The Global Human Capital Index for the year 2017 has been released by WEF.

Highlight of the index:

• The index is led by Norway, Finland and Switzerland, followed by large economies such as the US and Germany.
• In South Asia, the race is led by Sri Lanka at rank 70 and Nepal at 98, while India has only a performs slightly better than Bangladesh (111) and Pakistan (125).
• India ranks 110th in primary education attainment among 25-54 age group, 118th in labour force participation in the same age group, 111th in vocation education enrolment rate, 120th in medium-skilled employment. However, the most dubious distinction for the country is that it ranks dead last across all age groups in the employment gender gap.
• The report observes that although India’s “current educational attainment rate has improved markedly over past generations, its youth literacy rate is still only 89 per cent, well behind the rates of other leading emerging markets, as well as the lower-middle income group’s average. India also ranks poorly in labour force participation, due in part to one of the world’s largest employment gender gaps”.
• With the gender gap a clear factor pulling India down, the remedy lies in bridging it.
• A primary avenue for realising a greater share of the nation’s human capital potential consists in creating a virtuous cycle by increasing inclusivity and expanding access to its numerous learning and employment opportunities.
• There are, however, signs that India is slowly moving in the right direction, despite the huge challenges it faces. The country scores well on the ‘know-how’ parameter that measures the use of specialised skills at work – India ranks 42nd in terms of economic complexity, 47th in availability of skilled employees, and 89th in high-skilled employment share.
• The other markers are that India ranks well on are its improving education system (27th), skill diversity of graduates (58th) and high-skilled employment share (89th).
• On an average, the world has developed only 62 per cent of its human capital. Across the index, there are only 25 nations that have tapped 70 per cent of their human capital or more, while 14 countries remain below 50 per cent.
• The overall average score for South Asia is 54.10 — behind the Middle East and North Africa and ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa.
• China performs strongly, finishing 34th in the rankings. The report says it does best on the deployment sub-index, and also performs relatively well across the development and know-how sub-indices. China is well ahead of the other BRICS nations except Russia, which the former’s rapid expansion of educational attainment across its younger generations poised to be an asset in preparing its future workforce

About GHC Index:

• The Global Human Capital Index 2017 ranks 130 countries on how well they are developing their human capital on a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) across four thematic dimensions and five distinct age groups to capture the full human capital potential profile of a country. It aims to be used as a tool to assess progress within countries and point to opportunities for cross-country learning and exchange.
• The list compiled by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) 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.
• The report measures 130 countries against four key areas of human capital development; Capacity (determined by past investment in formal education), Deployment (accumulation of skills through work), Development (continued upskilling and reskilling of existing workers) and Know-how (specialised skills-use at work).