A global study on a range of health indicators released has ranked India 143rd among 188 countries, citing various challenges, including mortality rates, malaria, hygiene and air pollution.

• Despite rapid economic growth, India was ranked below Comoros and Ghana, the first annual assessment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) health performance published in medical journal Lancet and launched at a special event at the United Nations general assembly in New York.

• India was placed just ahead of Pakistan and Bangladesh which were ranked 149th and 151st respectively. India’s poor performance on hygiene, air pollution and mortality were among the factors that placed it lower than countries like Bhutan, Botswana, Syria and Sri Lanka.

• For malaria, which was one of the health indicators assessed, India merely scored 10 points and remained in the red. Similarly for hygiene, the study gave India just eight points while for PM2.5, it scored just 18 points.

• India, however, scored above 80 points for performing well in areas like Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), which are a diverse group of communicable diseases, overweight and alcohol consumption.

• The study said cross the world good progress has been made towards some of the health-related SDGs since 2000, particularly in reducing under-five and neonatal mortality, family planning, and in the rollout of universal health care.

• India’s poor performance on hygiene, air pollution mortality are among factors that place it lower than countries like Bhutan, Botswana, Syria and Sri Lanka.