India has been ranked at the 116th position in the latest edition of the World Bank’s annual Human Capital Index that benchmarks key components of human capital across countries.

However, India’s score increased to 0.49 from 0.44 in 2018, according to the Human Capital Index report released by the World Bank on Wednesday.

The pandemic puts at risk the decade’s progress in building human capital… the economic impact has been particularly deep for women and the most disadvantaged families

World Bank

The 2020 Human Capital Index update includes health and education data for 174 countries — covering 98 per cent of the world’s population — up to March 2020, providing a pre-pandemic baseline on the health and education of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries.

The analysis shows that pre-pandemic, most countries had made steady progress in building human capital of children, with the biggest strides made in low-income countries. Despite this progress, and even before the effects of the pandemic, a child born in a typical country could expect to achieve just 56 per cent of their potential human capital.

“The pandemic puts at risk the decade’s progress in building human capital,” said World Bank group president David Malpass.