India ranks 134th on UNDP Index

RPK

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India rank poor 134 on UN`s Human Development Index


New Delhi: The quality of life in India continues to be appalling with the country ranked poorly at 134 among 182 countries on the Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that was released globally on Monday.

The ranking clearly shows India has slipped in comparative terms in ensuring a better quality of life for its citizens as in the previous index, published for 2007 and 2008 together, it ranked 128, while the position the year before was 126.


Normally published annually since 1990, the index goes beyond a nation's gross domestic product (GDP) to measure the general well-being of people under a host of parameters, such as poverty levels, literacy and gender-related issues.

"Overall, however, India has made steady progress on the Human Development Index (HDI). Its value has gone up from 0.556 in 2000 to 0.612 in 2007," said Patrice Coeur-Bizot, the resident representative of UNDP in India.

Among the countries in the neighbourhood, China, Sri Lanka and Bhutan rank higher than India at 92, 102 and 132, respectively, while Pakistan at 141, Nepal at 144 and Bangladesh at 146 rank.

Norway continues to top the chart, while Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan make up the top 10. The US is ranked 13, while Britain and Germany are further down at 21 and 22.

This year, the report focuses on migration -- "Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development" -- to cast a new light on some common misconceptions on the subject and propose a series of policies to increase people's freedom and improve their lives.

It was released in India by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and goes on to highlight that nearly one billion of the world's estimated 6.7-billion population are migrants with women making up for almost half of that.

Ahluwalia questions UN report

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia questioned the veracity of the latest United Nations' Human Development Index.

"I would suggest the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) to also look at how the report is perceived around the world. They should come out with these reactions also," Ahluwalia said while releasing the report.

He further suggested that the report include other parameters for checking internal migration within a country.

"Some of India's data seem to show a small percent of population as migration. If you compare our internal migration with China it is much lower. It is important to know migration within countries," Ahluwalia said.
 

Martian

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Many of us are fans of new military weapons, regardless of country of origination. However, this UNDP report makes me wonder if the world is spending too much money on weapons and not enough on social programs.
 

Daredevil

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There is some serious problem with south asian countries. It looks like they lack proper educational, political, social and developmental structures to carry on with development of the country.

More resources and efficient use of them sans corruption is the key for the development. Also long term vision and smartness to manage the resources is lacking among the Indian politicians to carry forward this country.
 

Flint

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Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia questioned the veracity of the latest United Nations' Human Development Index.
That's all they can do. Waffle and deny. Admit it Mr. Ahluwalia. You have failed.
 

Daredevil

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Many of us are fans of new military weapons, regardless of country of origination. However, this UNDP report makes me wonder if the world is spending too much money on weapons and not enough on social programs.
As far as India is concerned, it is spending a lot of money on welfare but the problem lies in reaching of such funds to people which was meant to be. Due to a lot of corruption in Indian babudom (bureaucracy) and polity, only a small percentage of people receive such welfare while the bandicoots embezzle the funds. Same goes for educational, social, developmental programs. Sad, but true.

On contrary, India is spending much less on defense as a percentage of GDP, which is around 2%, which lesser than average global spending.
 

Flint

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The fundamental problem here is that while the Central Government is answerable for all the failures, nobody questions the people who are supposed to implement the schemes - the state governments.
The states can conveniently blame the center, and vice versa. Indian public watch the tamasha.
 

Martian

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It's too bad that politicians from all countries lack vision and courage. It would be an amazing experiment if most countries would sign an international treaty and cap military spending at 1% of GDP for ten years.

The money saved will be used to improve the lives of normal people. After the results of ten years, everyone can decide whether the benefits were worthwhile and whether the treaty should be extended for another ten years.
 

Rage

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Some mollifying words from the Hindustan Times:


India scores on development, trips on rank

First Published: 01:24 IST(6/10/2009)
Last Updated: 01:30 IST(6/10/2009)



India ranks 134 out of 182 countries, according to the Human Development Report 2009 released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Monday.

This despite its investment in development schemes like the National Rural Health Mission, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

“Overall, India has made steady progress on the Human Development Index (HDI). Its HDI value has gone up from 0.556 in 2000 to 0.612 in 2007,” said Patrice Coeur-Bizot, resident representative, UNDP.

But a change in methodology and the relative improvement of other countries has meant that India’s rank remains unchanged from two years ago.

The HDI is a measure of development that moves beyond gross domestic product per capita and takes into account life expectancy and literacy too.

Why does India lag behind? One reason is that only income is responsive to short-term policy changes. Health and education take longer to improve.

“We continue to pay the price for our relative neglect of education and health in the first 40 years of our development,” said Dr Santosh Mehrotra, former chief economist of the Global Human Development Report.

“We spend a lot on these schemes,” said Abhijit Patnaik, senior researcher at the Accountability Initiative at the Centre for Policy Research, “but the money has gone into building physical infrastructure rather than producing outcomes."


India scores on development, trips on rank- Hindustan Times
 

Energon

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Numbers and statistics may not give an accurate and definitive comparison between two closely placed countries. It can however provide a broad guideline to evaluate how nations and regions are doing. South Asia is undoubtedly (and has been for a very, very long time) one of the worst in terms of human development.

India should make a special note of this, because unlike many other nations in the comparative group (and particularly in South Asia) India has in fact achieved political stability, managed to build/maintain quality institutions and nurture a healthy middle class. Having said that, the sum of its components hasn't added up to the overall benefit of the astoundingly large poor population.

For India to truly move up the world order and garner the respect she so desires this issue is going to have to be addressed.
 

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