HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT

Context

Key points

• It is enough to look at a country's score on the Human Development Index (HDI) and compare it to the global average and the score of some other comparable countries.
• The HDI is a composite of three broad parameters: Longevity, education and income per capita.
• This year's HDR is quite different because for the first time in its history the HDR has been compiled since 1990.
• The global HDI value has declined two years in a row, erasing the gains of the preceding five years.
• It is not just a matter of the global HDI declining; over 90 per cent of countries experienced a decline in 2020 or 2021.

India's score 

1. India's life expectancy at birth was recorded at 67.2 years
2. The Expected years of schooling at 11.9 years
3. The mean years of schooling at 6.7 years and
4. The gross national income per capita (2017 PPP) is $6, 590.

World's averages

1. Life expectancy at 71.4 years,
2. Expected years of schooling at 12.8 years,
3. Mean years of schooling at 8.6 years and
4. Gross national income per capita (2017 PPP$) at $16,752.

India's HDI value 

• According to the report, released by the UNDP, India's HDI value stood at 0.633 in 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).
• The drop in HDI from 0.645 in 2019 to 0.633 in 2021 can be attributed to a falling life expectancy of 69.7 to 67.2 years.

Reduction in HDI Value

• A large contributor to the Human Development Index'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.
• HDI is a composite index that measures average achievement in human development taking into account four indicators:

1. Life expectancy at birth (Sustainable Development Goal 3)
2. Expected years of schooling (SDG 4.3)
3. Mean years of Schooling (SDG 4.4) and
4. Gross National Income per capita (2017 PPP$) ( SDG 8.5).

For Prelims & Mains