India has been placed at 103 rank on the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Human Capital Index, which is topped by Norway.
Among the South Asian countries, India falls behind Sri Lanka (70) and Nepal (98), and is just ahead of Bangladesh (111) and Pakistan (125). The country has the lowest rank among the BRICS nations -- the Russian Federation is at 16th place, followed by China at 34th, Brazil at 77th and South Africa at 87th place, the WEF said.
India stands at the bottom of the heap among the G20 nations, the report said.
India also ranks poorly on labour force participation, due in part to one of the world's largest employment gender gaps. However, it received solid rankings on education quality, staff training, and economic complexity.
India was on 105 position on the list last year, while the top spot was taken by Finland, pushed to second place this year.
The Global Human Capital Index 2017 has ranked 130 countries on how well they are developing their human capital on a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) across four thematic dimensions -- capacity, deployment, development and know-how -- and five distinct age groups or generations -- 0-14 years; 15-24 years; 25-54 years; 55-64 years; and 65 years and over -- to capture the full human capital potential profile of a country.
The WEF list takes into account "the knowledge and skills people possess that enable them to create value in the global economic system" to measure the 'human capital' rank of a country.
Other countries in the top 10 list are -- Switzerland (3rd), the United States (4th), Denmark (5th), Germany (6th), New Zealand (7th), Sweden (8th), Slovenia (9th) and Austria (10th).