week 14-20 december:
- India is placed 130 out of 188 on the Human Development Index (HDI) for 2014 with Bangladesh at 142 and Pakistan at 147.
- The country’s HDI, when adjusted for inequality, plunges further by 28.6 per cent.
- HDI is the composite measure of every country’s attainment in standard of living, health and education. Standard of living is arrived at through gross national income per capita, health by life expectancy and education by mean years of education among the adult population and expected years of schooling for children.
- An analysis of 30-year data shows that India’s improved performance on HDI is not through improvements in education and health, but mainly through income growth.
- India’s GNI PPP stands at $5,497, a 338 per cent increase since 1980 while its life expectancy at birth is 68 years, an increase of 14 years in the past 35 years. However, improvements have been most laggardly when it comes to education indicators. The mean years of schooling has increased by only by 3.5 years since 1980. The expected years of schooling increased by 5.3 years in the same period.