Discuss briefly about the Human Development Index(HDI) and India’s position in HDI.

Introduction:

Human Development Index is a ranking system developed by the United Nations Development Programme. It ranks countries into 4 tiers based on the score. It is often used to measure the progress of the country in terms of its economy and is a statistical index.

 Body:

Components of HDI:

HDI is a combination of Life expectancy, Education and Gross National Incomes. It was created by Pakistani Economist Mahbub Ul Haq in 1990. If a country has higher values in all these then such country will be ranked higher. Norway is the country having First Rank. India’s position in latest ranking is 131 which is relatively low. The 4 categories of the countries after ranking is

  • Low
  • Medium
  • High
  • Very High

Criticism:

  1. Lack of technological advancement consideration
  2. Improper Data source
  3. Unrealistic categorization with misclassification
  4. Lack of global perspective

Conclusion:

After 2010, there are several changes made to the development of the Index. Even in India’s case, the ranking seems very low. Different strata of society are not considered. Most of the European countries are ranked higher whereas the African countries are ranked relatively lower as it is evident from the report.