HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT (HDR) 2023-2024

Posted 15 Apr 2024

4 min read

Why in the news?

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)released the Human Development Report (HDR) 2023-2024 titled “Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarised world".

About HDR

Released by: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) annually since 1990.
Objective: Examines major global challenges that affect human development and suggest recommendations.
Human Development Index (HDI): HDI published since 1990, is the core of the HDR.

Human Development Index (HDI)

About: It’s statistical measure used to quantify a country's achievement in 3 basic dimensions of human development - Long and healthy life, Knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
How HDI value is calculated?
- HDI value is determined by aggregating the country's scores in 4 indicators and these indicators are compiled into a single number between 0 and 1.0 based on dimension indices. (Refer Infographic)
Developed by: Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq.
Significance: It can be used to examine the various policy choices of nations.
- For example, if two countries have approximately the same GNI per capita, then the HDI can help to evaluate why they produce widely disparate human development outcomes.
Limitations: The HDI captures only part of what human development entails. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc.
- Thus, HDR provides additional composite indices to evaluate other life aspects, including inequality issues such as gender disparity or racial inequality.

A diagram of a diagram of a development index

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Key Findings about India

HDI: Rank Improved to 134 in 2022 from 135 in 2021 (and 130 in 2018).
HDI Value: Increased to 0.644 from 0.633 in 2021.
- Life expectancy at birth: Improved to 67.7 years (in 2022) from 67.2 (in 2021).
- Expected years of schooling: Increased to 12.6 years from 11.9 years.
- Mean years of schooling: Increased to 6.57 years.
- Gross National Income per capita: Improved to $6,951 from $6,542.
Category: Medium human development category.
Comparison with the Neighborhood: India ranks below China (75), Sri Lanka (78), Maldives (87), Bhutan (125), and Bangladesh (129).

Myanmar (144), Nepal (146), Pakistan (164) and Afghanistan (182) have been ranked lower than India.

Global Findings

Human Development Index (HDI): A total of 193 countries were ranked in 2022 of which Switzerland ranked first, followed by Norway and Iceland.
- Uneven Recovery: Rich countries are experiencing record levels of human development, while half of the world’s poorest countries remain below their pre-crisis level.
- Economic Concentration: Almost 40 % of global trade in goods is concentrated in three or fewer countries.
Widening Human Development Gap: The two-decade trend of steadily reducing inequalities between wealthy and poor nations is now in reverse.
Rise in Trend of Democracy Paradox: This paradox, coupled with a sense of powerlessness and a lack of control over government decisions, has fuelled political polarization and inward-looking policy approaches.
- Democracy Paradox means where the population thinks positively about democracy but supports leaders who undermine democracy.

Other major indices measuring human development

Index	Measures	India’s Performance
Gender Inequality Index (GII)	The GII measures gender inequalities in 3 key dimensions — reproductive health, empowerment and labour market.	India has jumped 14 places to rank 108 in 2022, from 122 in 2021.
Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)	MPI captures the multiple deprivations that people in developing countries face in their health, education and standard of living.	There are more than 230 million people in Multidimensional poverty in 2021 in India.
Gender Development Index (GDI)	GDI measures disparities on the HDI by gender.	India shows low equality in HDI achievements between women and men with absolute deviation from gender parity of more than 10 %.
Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)	IHDI contains two related measures of inequality—the IHDI and the overall loss in HDI due to inequality.	India’s rank declined by 6 places to 140^th in IDHI.
Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index	It adjusts the HDI for planetary pressures in the Anthropocene to reflect a concern for intergenerational inequality.	With 3% difference from HDI value, India ranks at 127^th.

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