India got 135 rank in Human Development Index

India got 135 rank in Human Development Index, released by United Nations Development Programme on 24th July. The Human Development Index is a composite index that measures income, education (average years of education completed by adults, and expected years of education for children entering school) and health (life expectancy). Since 1990, the UNDP has calculated an HDI for every country in the world and ranked them. 

India’s human development index has improved very slightly but remains among the median countries in terms of human development, just seven places above Bangladesh 

Important points

• India HDI value is 0.586, out of a maximum possible 1
• India is 135 India’s human development index improved slower in the 2000s than it did in the 1980s despite much faster economic growth, the report shows.
• The improvement in the 2000s was better than in the 1990s.
• When inequality is factored in, India loses nearly 30% of its HDI value.
• India’s human development indicators are also substantially different for men and women
• The HDI for men alone is much higher at 0.627, while the HDI for Indian women alone is just 0.519.
• The report further said that none of the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—were in the high human development category and India remained at the bottom with lowest HDI value among them.
• Among the BRICS countries, Russia secured the highest rank at 57, followed by Brazil at 79 and China at 91. South Africa and India secured 118th and 135th position, respectively.
• The HDI reflects long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human lives—a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. In 2013, the study covered 187 countries, the same as in 2012 and 2011.
• The report said that based on the data available on 15 November 2013, there were few countries with changed in ranks between 2012 and 2013.
• In India, 10.9% of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 26.6% of adult women have reached at least some secondary education compared with 50.4% of their male counterparts.
• India’s 55.3% of population were multi-dimensionally poor, while an additional 18.2% were near multi-dimensional poverty, the report said.
• Introducing a new index, Gender Development Index (GDI), which is ratio of female to male HDI, in 2013 female HDI value for India stood at 0.519 in contrast with 0.627 for males. The GDI was calculated for 148 countries.

About Human Development Index

• The Human Development Index (HDI) was created by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and the Indian economist Amartya Sen in 1990 and was published by the United Nations Development Programme.
• the 2010 Human Development Report a further Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) was introduced.
• ile the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that "the IHDI is the actual level of human development (accounting for inequality)" and "the HDI can be viewed as an index of "potential" human development (or the maximum IHDI that could be achieved if there were no inequality)"
• e origins of the HDI are found in the annual Development Reports of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

About UNDP

• ited Nations Development Programme is the United Nations global development net work.
• s headquarters are at in New York City. It formed in 1985. At present its head is Helen Clark