Human Capital Index

India has been ranked at 105th position out of 130 countries globally on the 2016 Human Capital Index (HCI), which was recently released in the World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

Human Capital Index:-

• The Human Capital Index measures countries’ ability to nurture, develop and deploy talent for economic growth.
• The Human Capital Index measures countries’ ability to maximize and leverage their human capital endowment. 
• The index assesses Learning and Employment outcomes across 5 distinct age groups, on a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best), and assesses 130 economies.
• It is based on 46 indicators about how well countries are developing and deploying their human capital, focusing on education, skills and employment.
• The WEF report of HCI presents an analysis by focusing on a number of key issues that can support better design of education policy and future workforce planning.
• 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. 
• The aim is to assess the outcome of past and present investments in human capital and offer insight into what a country’s talent base looks like today and how it is likely to evolve into the future.

Key Facts

Top 10 Countries in 2016 HCI:

• Finland (1st position),
• Norway (2nd),
• Switzerland (3rd),
• Japan (4th),
• Sweden (5th),
• New Zealand (6th),
• Denmark (7th),
• Netherlands (8th),
• Canada (9th) and
• Belgium (10th).

India’s Neighbours:

• Sri Lanka (50th),
• China (71st),
• Bhutan (91st),
• Bangladesh (104th),
• Nepal (108th) and
• Pakistan (118th).

India and HCI:-

• India is ranked lowest as against Russia (28th), China (71st), Brazil (83rd) and South Africa (8th).
• In the 2015 edition of HCI, India had ranked 100th out of total 124 countries.
• India has got better rankings HCI’s indicators such as quality of education system (39th), staff training (46th) and ease of finding skilled employees (45th).
• India is the second largest country in the global distribution of tertiary degree holders share at nearly 78 million after China (2.5 billion) in STEM subjects (science, technology , engineering and mathematics).
• India has optimized just 57% of its human capital endowment. 
• Its youth literacy rate is still only 90% (103rd in the world).
• In case of labour force participation, India ranks low as it has world’s largest employment gender gaps (121st).