Human Development Index(HDI)

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Key highlights of the index-

• • HDI is composite index that measures average achievement in human development taking into account four indicators: 
    • Life expectancy at birth (Sustainable Development Goal 3).
    • Expected years of schooling (SDG 4.3).
    • Mean years of schooling (SDG 4.4); and 
    • Gross national income (GNI) per capita (2017 PPP$) (SDG 8.5).
  • The HDI’s methodology and conceptual foundations were developed by economists Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq, who brought out the first HDI report in 1990 based on the so-called “human capabilities approach”.
  • Ninety percent of countries have registered a reduction in their Human Development Index value in 2020 or 2021, reversing much of the progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • A large contributor to the HDI’s recent decline is a global drop in life expectancy, down from 72.8 years in 2019 to 71.4 years in 2021. 
  • The last two years have had a devastating impact on billions of people worldwide when crises like Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine hit back-to-back and interacted with sweeping social and economic shifts and dangerous planetary changes.

• Switzerland, with an HDI value of 0.962, occupied the top spot in the global ranking.

• India’s neighbours Bangladesh (129th), Bhutan (127th), Sri Lanka (73rd) and China (79th) ranked better than India. 

India’s rank-

• India’s rank on the Human Development Index has slipped from 130 in 2020 to 132 in 2021, in line with a global fall in HDI scores in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• India’s HDI value stood at 0.633 during 2021, which was lower than the world average of 0.732. 
• In 2020, too, India recorded a decline in its HDI value (0.642) in comparison to the pre-Covid level of 2019 (0.645).

• In 2021, India’s life expectancy at birth was recorded at 67.2 years; expected years of schooling at 11.9 years; mean years of schooling at 6.7 years; and gross national income per capita (2017 PPP) at $6,590. 
• On all these four parameters, India was behind the world averages in 2021: life expectancy at 71.4 years, expected years of schooling at 12.8 years, mean years of schooling at 8.6 years and gross national income per capita (2017 PPP$) at $16,752.
• India has also been ranked 122 on the Gender Inequality Index.

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