India has been ranked 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. India ranks much below China’s 71st position while Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are also placed higher on the index released by Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) at its Annual Meeting of New Champions — also known as ‘Summer Davos’ summit. Pakistan ranks further lower at 118th place.

Giving India 105th rank out of the total 130 countries included in the index, WEF said the country has optimised just 57 per cent of its human capital endowment — placing it in the top of the bottom quartile of the Index. India was ranked 100th last year out of total 124 countries included in the 2015 index.

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.

Among BRICS countries, India is ranked lowest as against Russia’s 28th, China’s 71st, Brazil’s 83rd and South Africa’s 88th. Mauritania, Yemen, Chad, Nigeria and Mali are placed in the bottom-five with below 50 per cent talent optimisation.