-Express News Service
The Human Development Report (HDR), 2011 released today has ranked India at 134th among 187 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI).
With an HDI value of 0.547 — where 1 is the highest and zero lowest — India fares worse than the average global value of 0.682, and compares with the HDI value of 0.548 for the South Asian region. Norway sits on top of the pile.
India has, however, seen an impressive improvement in its HDI value — improving at an average annual rate of 1.51 per cent; the global average is 0.65 per cent.
India’s HDI value has improved by over 59 per cent from 0.344 in 1980 to 0.547 in 2011, as against an improvement of about 22 per cent in the global HDI value from 0.558 in 1980, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said.
India fares better than its neighbours Pakistan (145), Bangladesh (146) and Nepal (157), but is behind Sri Lanka (97). India is lowest among BRICS nations — Brazil (84), Russia (66), China (101) and South Africa (123). China has registered a faster improvement in HDI value — 1.73 per cent annually since 1980 — than India.
Inequalities in income contributed the least among the three main dimensions used for calculating the index value. The education index registered a loss of about 41 per cent after being adjusted for inequality, the life expectancy index saw a loss of over 27 per cent when discounted for inequalities. In contrast, the living standard as measured by income index registered a loss of only about 15 per cent while adjusted for inequality.
India remained a less unequal society in income distribution as compared to its BRICS peers.