India’s Rank improved in HDI, Ranked 134 out of 193 countries
Index
5 min read
In the recently released 2023/24 Human Development Report (HDR) titled, “Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarized World” India’s HDI value has increased to 0.644 in 2022, ranking the country 134 out of 193 countries.
India’s Performance in HDI
India’s showed improvement across all HDI indicators over the previous year –
- increase in life expectancy from 67.2 to 67.7 years,
- expected years of schooling going up to 12.6 from 12 and
- per capita Gross National Income increased from $6,542 to $6,951.
According to UNDP’s Human Development Report 2023-24, India also showed progress in Gender Inequality Index (GII) by reducing gender inequality, ranked 108 out of 166 countries, as compared with 122 out of 170 nations in 2021.
With a GII value of 0.437 in 2022, India performed better than the global average of 0.462 and South Asian average of 0.478.
The report also highlighted that between 1990 and 2022, India’s HDI value increased by 48.4% (from 0.434 to 0.644).
South Asia experienced one of the highest losses in HDI due to inequality (31.1% for India), second only to sub-Saharan Africa, followed by the Pacific.
Performance of India's neighbours
Nepal and Bhutan are ranked 146 and 125 respectively, which puts them in the 'medium human development' category along with India. Meanwhile, Pakistan (164) and Afghanistan (182) are placed in the 'low human development' category. China, on the other hand, is ranked 75 and Sri Lanka is ranked 78, both of which are in the 'high human development' category.
About Human Development Index (HDI)
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comprehensive indicator that measures average achievement in key aspects of human development, including a long and healthy life, access to education and a decent standard of living.
Dimensions of HDI
- Health dimension: It is evaluated through life expectancy at birth.
- Education dimension: It is measured by years of schooling for adults and expected years of schooling for children.
- Standard of living dimension: It is assessed by gross national income per capita.
To account for the reduced significance of income with increasing GNI, the HDI uses the logarithm of income.
The three HDI dimension indices are combined into a composite index using the geometric mean.
The HDI is based on the human development approach, which was developed by Mahbub ul-Haq and anchored in Amartya Sen's work on human capabilities.
Origin of HDI
The HDI originates from the annual Human Development Reports produced by the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report Office.
Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq created these reports in 1990 with the explicit purpose of shifting the focus of development economics from national income accounting to people-centered policies.
He believed that a straightforward composite measure of human development was necessary to persuade the public, academics, and politicians that development should be evaluated not only by economic growth but also by improvements in human well-being.
