India on Wednesday dropped down 2 positions to 131 on the UN Human Development Index according to the 2020 Human Development report published by the United Nations Development Programme.
According to the report that measures national progress, India ranked 131 out of 189 countries. The progress is measured by development indicators including income, gross domestic product, educational attainment, health outcomes and standard of living.
Bhutan and Namibia have overtaken India to gain the 129th and 130th spot respectively. Norway topped the index while Ireland and Switzerland followed it closely. Some South Asian nations such as India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Cambodia and Pakistan were ranked under a grouping of countries with medium human development.
Meanwhile, Malaysia, an emerging economy, ranked 62 placings itself in the category of countries with very high human development.
“India’s HDI value for 2019 is 0.645 -- which put the country in the medium human development category -- positioning it at 131 out of 189 countries and territories. Between 1990 and 2019, India’s HDI value increased from 0.429 to 0.645, an increase of 50.3 per cent,” the report said.
Among other development indicators, India was placed at the bottom third in quality of health and education, an adverse sex ratio and a high percentage of people in vulnerable employment, according to the report.
The Human Development Report 1990 defined human development as the “process of enlarging people’s choice.”
“The concept of human development is that people must have access to a certain choice that enhance their capabilities. India’s slip on the global ranking is concerning, underscoring the need for higher investment in social infrastructure rather than a preoccupation with industrial development,” said Ashish Pai, a member of India’s first state-level human development index brought out by Madhya Pradesh in 1995.
