“Human Resource Index”, Where are we?

The Human Capital Index measures countries ability to educate, develop and deploy talent for economic growth. Recently, the rankings have been published by World Economic Forum. It is based on 46 indicators about how well countries are developing and deploying their human capital, focusing on education, skills and employment. Finland captured the First position.

Human Capital Index
Overall Index
Country	score	Rank
Finland	85.86	1
Norway	84.64	2
Switzerland	84.61	3
Japan	83.44	4
Sweden	83.29	5
New zealand	82.79	6
Denmark	82.47	7
Netherlands	82.18	8
Canada	81.95	9
Belgium	81.59	10
BRICS Countries
Russia	77.86	28
china	67.81	71
Brazil	64.51	83
South Africa	62.97	88
India	57.73	105

India is in the 105th rank out of the total 130 countries. Although the country’s educational attainment has improved over the different age groups, its youth literacy rate is still only 90 percent ( 103rd in the world ), well behind the rates of other emerging markets,” World Economic Forum said. “India also ranks poorly on labour force participation, due in part to one of the world’s largest employment gender gaps (121st).

India has got better rankings on quality of education system (39th), staff training (46th) and ease of finding skilled employees (45th indicators). This suggests “a primary avenue for improvement for the country consists of expanding access to its numerous learning and employment opportunities”.

What is the action plans suggested for further developments? One, India would have to work on its social welfare schemes for the aged people, in order to see a holistic improvement in the score. The younger generations highlights the disconnection between today’s education system and the skills required in the labour market. In order to be globally competitive, India must realise this untapped potential and convert its educated population into skilled labour by focusing on creating right mix of workers whose skills are not outdated and match the needs of the market.