7.3.1. HDI or Human Development Index

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published its first Human Development Report (HDR) in 1990. The report had a human development index (HDI) which was the first attempt to define and measure the levels of development. The index focuses on longevity, knowledge and decent living standards.

♤ Standard of living: to be indicated by the real per capita income adjusted for the differing purchasing power parity (PPP).

♤ Knowledge: to be measured by indicators related to the level of education:

o educational attainment among the adults (given 2/3rd weightage).

o school enrollment (given 1/3rd weightage).

♤ Longevity: Life expectancy to be calculated at the time of birth.

The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the above three dimensions. Initially reported for 14 countries, the UN’s 2016 report presented HDI results for 188 countries. India ranked 131th in 2016 Human Development Report with HDI score of 0.624 in the medium human development category. India’s current score is up from 0.428 in 1990, i.e. an increase of 46% between 1990 and 2016.