India Climbs One Spot on Human Development Indicators

Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical Update, UNDP

India climbs one spot on the Human Development Index (HDI) and reached 130. Though, Norway remains on the top followed by Switzerland, Australia, Ireland, and Germany. Today, the United Nations Development Programme released the Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical Update.  As the UN Report, states, the disadvantages facing women and girls are a major source of inequality and one of the greatest barriers to human development progress.
Two composite indices and two statistical dashboards capture the disparities between men and women.

As the UN report states, the HDI is a composite index focusing on three basic dimensions of human development: the ability to lead a long and healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth; the ability to acquire knowledge, measured by mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling; and the ability to achieve a decent standard of living, measured by gross national income per capita.

In 1990, UNDP published the first Human Development Report (HDR). Since then, it has produced more than 800 global, regional, national and subnational HDRs and organized hundreds of workshops, conferences, and other outreach initiatives to foster human development. These activities have extended the frontiers of analytical thinking about human progress beyond economic growth, firmly placing people and human well-being at the centre of development policies and strategies.

Progress on the HDI since 1990 has not always been steady.  Some countries suffered reversals due to conflicts, epidemics or economic crises.