India has been placed at 130th position in the 2015 Human Development Index (HDI) among the 188 countries.
It was unveiled in the recently released Human Development Report 2015 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Key facts:
- India has been placed at 130th position with 0.609 score in the medium human development category. In 2014 report country’s rank was 135 with 0.586 score.
- Improvement in India’s 2015 HDI from previous year has been attributed to rise in life expectancy and per capita income.
- India’s Life expectancy at birth: It has increased to 68 years in 2014 from 67.6 in the previous year and 53.9 in 1980.
- Gross National Income (GNI) per capita: It has increased to $5,497 in 2014 from $5,180 in 2013 and $1,255 in 1980. India’s GNI per capita increased by about 338 per cent between 1980 and 2014.
- Access to knowledge: Expected years of schooling have remained stagnant at 11.7 since 2011. The mean years of schooling at 5.4 has not changed since 2010.
- Gender Development Index (GDI): GDI value of India is 0.795 in 2014. The female HDI value for India is 0.525 in contrast with 0.660 for males.
- Gender Inequality Index (GII): India rank at 130th position with value of 0.563 out of 155 countries in the 2014.
- India’s HDI value increased from 0.362 to 0.609 between 1980 and 2014. It indicates an increase of 68.1 per cent or an average annual increase of about 1.54 per cent.
- India’s life expectancy at birth increased by 14.1 years between 1980 and 2014. The mean years of schooling has increased by 3.5 years and expected years of schooling increased by 5.3 years in the same period.
Top Three Countries: Norway (1st rank), Australia (2nd) and Switzerland (3rd).
India’s Neighbours: Sri Lanka (73 rank), China (90), Bhutan (132), Bangladesh (142), Nepal (145), Pakistan (147) and Afghanistan (171).
BRICS Nations: Russia (50 rank), Brazil (75), China (90), South Africa (116) and India (130).
About Human Development Index:
The HDI is an average measure of basic human development achievements in a country measured by UNDP. It is an average of long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development viz. a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income per capita indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. The HDI was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, is anchored in the Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities, often framed in terms of whether people are able to “be” and “do” desirable things in their life, and was published by the United Nations Development Programme.