India's ranking has risen from 128 to 115 in the latest UNDP Human Development Index, according to a report released Tuesday that focuses on the use of technology to battle poverty.

India's position among 162 countries showed an improvement over the last year in several key areas including poverty reduction, life expectancy, adult literacy and economic growth.

Among the other countries in the subcontinent, Sri Lanka took the 81st position. Pakistan, which was placed 127, Nepal (129), Bhutan (130) and Bangladesh (132) were among 36 countries with low human development.

India was also placed among 11 countries, including China, on target to eradicate poverty by 2015. Seventy other countries lag far behind in this effort.

This year's report of the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), titled "Making New Technologies Work for Human Development," introduces for the first time another key parameter - the Technology Achievement Index (TAI) - to determine how countries are harnessing science and technology to reduce poverty.

As per this index, India ranks 63rd among 72 countries but it has been termed a "dynamic adaptor" of technology. This index also includes a ranking of the world's leading hubs of technological innovation and achievement, in which Bangalore figures among the top 11 cities with a score of 13.

Silicon Valley in the U.S., with a score of 16, heads the list of 46 locations, while El Ghazala in Tunisia and Gauteng in South Africa are at the bottom with a score of four each.

The report says the reason India was placed at the lower end of TAI despite having a world-class hub in Bangalore was because technology was unevenly diffused in the country.

"Bangalore is still a small conclave in a country where the average adult received only 5.1 years of education, adult literacy is 44 percent, electricity consumption is half that in China and there are just 28 telephones for every 1,000 people,"

According to UNDP officials here, India has invited maximum references in the 264-page report released here jointly by Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan, Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptulla and UNDP resident representative Brenda Gael McSweeney.

It says India, along with China, deserves special consideration in terms of the progress made in raising per capita incomes despite its large population.

"The story is better in India, with inequality falling until recently and then coming to a halt."

Notably, the report made a special reference to "India's dynamic diaspora network". "The success of Indian diaspora in the Silicon Valley, for example, appears to be influencing how the world views India, by creating a soft of 'branding'."

"Indian nationality for a software programmer sends a signal of quality, just as a 'made in Japan' label signals first class consumer electronics."

The report has also advocated a flat exit tax on students who study in subsidized Indian technology colleges, but choose to seek employment outside the country.

The report says that the nation incurs between $15,000 and $20,000 on each student, and given that close to 100,000 students leave the country, the loss of resources amounts to $2 billion a year.

"The simplest administrative mechanism would be to impose a flat tax - a exit fee paid by the employees or the firm at the time the visa is granted."