Assam has been ranked in the third position among all major states of the country in terms of Human Development Index (HDI). This was revealed by the Planning Commission in its latest published human development report prepared by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research .An official press release issued at Guwahati on Tuesday said that Assam achieved a rate of 32.1 per cent progress in HDI for the period 1999-2008. The HDI reflects three main components of human development, that is, education, health and per capita income.The report revealed that among the three components used for HDI index, Assam has shown highest rate of progress in income index and third highest rate of progress in health index.Though Assam is still lagging behind the national average in education index, it has shown marked improvement during the period.The report further said, if Assam maintains the current rate of progress for another decade, there is strong possibility that the overall human development will be ahead of other States of the country.