Highlights of HDI Report

Why in news?

Human Development Index report by UNDP has been released recently

What is HDI report about?

• The latest human development index (HDI) report released by the United Nations Development Programme.
• The HDI is the composite measure of every country’s attainment in three basic dimensions:

1. Standard of living measured by the gross national income (GNI) per capita.
2. Health measured by the life expectancy at birth.
3. Education levels calculated by mean years of education among the adult population and the expected years of schooling for children.

What are the recent findings of the report?

• Norway at 0.95 has been ranked the highest on the HDI scale while Niger is the bottom at 0.35.
• The report states that on an average, people are living longer, are more educated, and have greater income today as is evident in the rise in average HDI levels since 1990 at 22 per cent globally.
• The least developed countries registered a 51 per cent increase. In keeping with the global trend, in the last 17 years since 1990, India registered a 50 per cent increase.
• In this period, life expectancy at birth in the country has increased by 11 years and children have been predicted to stay in school for 4.7 years longer than in 1990.
• The highest leap has been in India’s GNI per capita which registered a 266 per cent increase between 1990 and 2017.

Where India stands from its neighbours?

• The report compares India, Pakistan and Bangladesh the on gender inequality index (GII) which can be interpreted as the loss in human development due to inequality between female and male achievements in reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity.
• India’s inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) and unadjusted HDI of is ahead of Bangladesh and Pakistan.
• India has a GII of 0.524, ranking it 127 out of 160 countries in 2017, while Pakistan is ranked 133 and Bangladesh 134.

What are the concerns for India spotlighted by the report?

• In India’s case, the inequality-adjusted HDI of 26.8 per cent is due to the stark inequality in access to education, health, and income.
• In India gender inequality is another big issue which adversely affects human development, which is mainly due to the very low economic participation of women in India.
• India ranks 127 out of 160 countries on the Gender Inequality Index which reflects gender-based inequalities in reproductive health, empowerment (political and educational), and economic activity.

What measures needs to be taken?

• India need to focus on inequality and the pockets of deprivation that are dragging the HDI down.
• India needs to focus on, to ensure sustained HDI growth, is climate resilience, which is one factor that can constrain HDI.

Source: Indian Express