Why India's Rank Is Lowest In Human Development Index?


BANGALORE: In a recent Human Development report released by the United Nations Development Programme, India was ranked 135th in Human Development Index. A comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, standards of living, and quality of life for countries worldwide is known as the Human Development Index. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an underdeveloped country, as well as to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. However, out of 187 countries listed only 100 could make it through to either high or very high human development category. 

Going by the fact that India is developing day by day the actual reality is that the country’s ranking in the Human Development Index remained the same as 135 in 2013.  According to the United Nations Development Programme report, this clearly showed that there was little improvement that was visible in the living standard of its people.

“India’s HDI value for 2013 is 0.586 – which falls in the medium human development category – positioning the country at 135 out of 187 countries. Since 1980 to 2013, India’s HDI value increased from 0.369 to 0.586,” said the UNDP report released according to PTI. In addition to that out of the five major emerging national economies like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, none were in the high human development category and India remained at the bottom with lowest HDI value among them.