This paper draws attention to the problems associated with the construction of a GDI at the sub-national level in developing countries using data for 15 Indian states. The analysis shows that a variety of rankings of gender-related income attainment and the GDI can be obtained for Indian states using various measures of workforce participation rates and wage rates. The sharp changes in ranks which may be obtained with different sets of data show that there is need for exercising caution while deriving policy measures based on these ranks.