The Human Development Index

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The Human Development Index, ...is the latest and probably the best way of measuring the real development of a country.

This methodology was developed in 1990 by Professor Amartya Sen, and Economist Dr. Mahbub ul Haq and officially used and published by the United Nations Development Programme.

From Wikipedia: 

The HDI combined three dimensions up until its 2011 report:

• Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity
• Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting).
• Standard of living, as indicated by the natural logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity.

This is the methodology used by the UNDP up until its 2011 report.
The formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)^[7] In general, to transform a raw variable, say , into a unit-free index between 0 and 1 (which allows different indices to be added together), the following formula is used:

• 

where and are the lowest and highest values the variable can attain, respectively.
The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the uniformly weighted sum with ⅓ contributed by each of the following factor indices:

• Life Expectancy Index =
• Education Index =
  • Adult Literacy Index (ALI) =
  • Gross Enrollment Index (GEI) =
• GDP =

Other organizations/companies may include other factors, such as infant mortality, etc. which produces different number of HDI.

INDIA after 65 years of independence, with a PPP GDP approaching $5 trillion is still structurally a post colonial society. It still celebrates the Commonwealth membership, and games. It lacks the will to be truly innovative and pioneering.

The government operates on the basis of gimmicks and stunts which reflect popular public opinion, or the news for the day.

There are a staggering 850 million people who live on less than $2 a day.

It is a post -colonial Zamindari society with a jet set few at the top, linked to the government in Delhi and West, a very small REAL middle class, and a huge population of 90% at the bottom who are crushed daily by the corrupt post-colonial system.

Hinduism, the concept of Karma, religious fatalism, Bollywood, cricket and above all ignorance prevents a much expected revolution which should have destroyed such a poor corrupt ridden post-colonial society that still pays fealty to the evil British empire....under whom 30 million Indians perished.

The primary fault for this failure and weakness lye's with the central government in Delhi, its inefficiency and lack of governance. Its lack of will to mobilize massive national resources towards infrastructure and industry especially....the two greatest engines of growth, without creating inflationary conditions, and very labor intensive additionally. 

India needs steady REAL growth in its PPP GDP of between 8-10% annually, and anything below this target will be eaten by inflation, and population growth. 5-6 % GDP growth means in REALITY a static REAL increase in the HDI because of inflation and population growth of about 1.5%----Too high for such a country.

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India ranks 136 in human development index

ByMadhavi Rajadhyaksha, TNN

In another sign that India has much catching up to do, the Human Development Report 2013 released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ranked the country at a low 136 among 186 countries on its human development index (HDI) — a composite measure of life expectancy, access to education and income levels.

The report released on Thursday placed India at the near-bottom of countries which have reached 'medium development'.

With its index standing at 0.554 for the last year, India has miles to go to meet countries like Norway (ranked number 1) which boasts of an HDI of 0.955.

HDI is considered a better measure of a country's progress than mere income growth, but suffers from its own flaws such as masking regional inequalities.

On the positive side, India's HDI has risen by 1.7% annually since 1980. The report lauds India's contribution by way of its spillover development effect on other countries. For instance, it points out that Indian firms have been supplying affordable medicines, medical equipment and information and communication technology to other poorer countries.

The 2013 report focuses on the "rise of the south", mapping the shift in global dynamics from the traditional power base in the west to newer emerging countries.

Besides the emerging economies of Brazil, China, India and South Africa, the report also acknowledges developing nations such as Turkey, Mexico, Thailand and Indonesia as playing a larger role on the global stage.

It estimates that by 2020, the combined economic output of the three leading developing countries — India, Brazil and China — will surpass the aggregate production of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It underlines south-south cooperation as the key factor in boosting such development.

The report also underlines the need for global governance institutions to adopt a more equitable approach.