India was ranked low at 105th position globally on a worldwide Human Capital Index released by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF). the country has optimised just 57 per cent of its human capital endowment, the report said. India was ranked 100th last year out of total 124 countries included in the 2015 index.
The index measures countries’ ability to nurture, develop and deploy talent for economic growth.
• India ranks much below China’s 71st position while Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are also placed higher.
• Among BRICS countries, India is ranked lowest as against Russia’s 28th, China’s 71st, Brazil’s 83rd and South Africa’s 88th.
• Its youth literacy rate is still only 90 per cent (103rd in the world), well behind the rates of other leading emerging markets.

• India also ranks poorly on labour force participation, due in part to one of the world’s largest employment gender gaps (121st).
• On positive side, India has got better rankings on quality of education system (39th), staff training (46th) and ease of finding skilled employees (45th) indicators.
• The report also showed that India had the largest share in the “global distribution of tertiary degree holders” at nearly 78 million while it was second largest after China on global distribution of recent graduates in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) at about 2.5 million.

Finland, Norway and Switzerland hold the top three positions, utilising around 85 per cent of their human capital. Japan leads when it comes to 55 year-olds and over. Klaus Schwab is the Founder and Executive Chairman of WEF.

Economist Theodore Schultz invented the term HUMAN CAPITAL in the 1960s to reflect the value of our human capacities. He believed human capital was like any other type of capital; it could be invested in through education, training and enhanced benefits that will lead to an improvement in the quality and level of production.