India has the largest number of illiterates in the world and the country ranks a poor 126th in the Human Development Index prepared by the UNDP, government told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

As per the Human Development Report 2006, India ranks 126th out of 177 countries covered in the report, Minister of State of HRD, D Purendeswari, told the upper house.

Adult literacy is only one of the several variables on the basis of which the Index is calculated, she said. In the year 2001, the total number of illiterates came down to 304.11 million from 328.88 million in 1991.