Improving Living Standards in India: Human Development Index (HDI)

  • @kw
  • 15 Jan 2020

Economic growth in India has been initiated by liberalization across the country since the last phase of 20th century as per Planning Commission of India. 


Human Development Index (HDI) of India has been rising consistently. This index clearly measures living conditions on the basis of consumption expenditure, education and health. UNDP, the sponsor of Human Development Index methodology since 1990, reported India\'s HDI to be 0.387 in 1999-2000, 0.467 in 2007-08 0.554 for 2012, an 18% increase over its 2008 HDI. United Nations declared India\'s HDI is 0.586 in 2014, a 5.77% increase over 2012. As for the year 2018, HDI for India stood at 0.647.


The increase in HDI indicates better living conditions by average citizens in India and consequently demand for housing and other amenities has been increasing due to increase in purchasing power of people and the per Capita Income has increased substantially. 

 

HDI and its composite indices have been showing convergence across states. The poorer states are slowly catching up with the National Average indicating that these states are able to share the benefits projects implemented by government and private players in the development process. That is, the past decade has seen us move towards social inclusion.


Schemes such as Ayushman Bharat, PMJDY crucial for development, says UNDP official

India inched up one spot to rank 129th out of 189 countries on the 2019 Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2019. Inequality and deprivation continue to be high in the country.


“For countries like India, which have shown great success in reducing absolute poverty, we hope that the 2019 Human Development Report sheds light on inequalities and deprivations that go beyond income. How we tackle old and new inequalities, ranging from access to basic services such as housing to things like access to quality university education, will be critical to whether we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Shoko Noda, UNDP India Resident Representative in an official release.


It is however pertinent to know, what exactly Human Development Index means and indicates. It is a statistical tool used to measure a country’s overall achievement in social and economic dimensions. All the parameters when combined can indicate standard of living by the statistical analysis.


In 1990, A Pakistan Economist Mahbub ul Haq had published his research paper showing the calculation of HDI which later was accepted as a standard statistical tool by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to measure a country’s development.UNDP ranks country’s on the basis of HDI every year.


List of HDI as reported by UNDP in 2019 for some countries are as follows:

Top 20 countries in the world

Miscellaneous

S.No

Rank

Country

HDI

S.No

Rank

Country

HDI

1

1

Norway

0.954

21

35

United Arab Emirates

0.866

2

2

Switzerland

0.946

22

43

Hungary

0.845

3

3

Ireland

0.942

23

49

Russian Federation

0.824

4

4

Germany

0.939

24

57

Kuwait

0.808

5

4

Hong Kong, China (SAR)

0.939

25

59

Turkey

0.806

6

6

Australia

0.938

26

61

Malaysia

0.804

7

6

Iceland

0.938

27

66

Mauritius

0.796

8

8

Sweden

0.937

28

71

Sri Lanka

0.780

9

9

Singapore

0.935

29

77

Thailand

0.765

10

10

Netherlands

0.933

30

79

Brazil

0.761

11

11

Denmark

0.930

31

85

China

0.758

12

12

Finland

0.925

32

104

Maldives

0.719

13

13

Canada

0.922

33

106

Philippines

0.712

14

14

New Zealand

0.921

34

111

Indonesia

0.707

15

15

United Kingdom

0.920

35

129

India

0.647

16

15

United States

0.920

36

134

Bhutan

0.617

17

17

Belgium

0.919

37

135

Bangladesh

0.614

18

18

Liechtenstein

0.917

38

147

Nepal

0.579

19

19

Japan

0.915

39

152

Pakistan

0.560

20

20

Austria

0.914

40

170

Afghanistan

0.496


UNDP ranking was done out of 189 counties last being Niger with HDI 0.377

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