The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. The Index looks beyond the positivist approach of economic development and brings in social indicators too.
India fell in the list of medium human development category with the HDI value of 0.633, lower than its value of 0.645 in the 2020 report. Between 1990 and 2021, India's HDI value changed from 0.434 to 0.633, registering a change of 45.9 percent.
The index is calculated using four indicators ― life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling, mean years of schooling, and the gross national income per capita.
INDIA'S PERFORMANCE ACROSS DIFFERENT HDI INDICATORS in 1990 AND 2021
Life expectancy at birth
WHO defines life expectancy as the average number of years that a newborn could expect to live. Thus, life expectancy at birth is the average longevity of life in a country. Higher longevity denotes better and healthier life.
Life expectancy in India has increased from 58.7 years in 1990 to 67.2 years in 2021. This symbolises an increase of 14.4% and points towards improvement in healthcare and standard of living in the country.
Expected years of schooling
Expected years of schooling is the number of years a child of school entrance age is expected to spend at school, or university, including years spent on repetition. It is the sum of the age-specific enrolment ratios for primary, secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary education.
According to the UNDP data, expected years of schooling in India has witnessed a 48.75% surge. It was 8 years in 1990 and rose to 11.9 years in 2021.
Mean years of schooling
Mean years of schooling can be defined as the average number of completed years of education of a country's population aged 25 years and older, excluding years spent repeating individual grades.
There has been a significant improvement in this indicator as India recorded a shift from 2.8 years as mean years of schooling to 6.7 years as mean years of schooling. This denotes a 139% increase in the mean years of schooling.
Gross national income per capita
Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is the dollar value of a country's final income in a year divided by its population. This indicator accounts for the economic element of the HDI.
According to 2017 as the base year, the per capita GNI of India has increased from $1,790 in 1990 to $6,590 in 2021. This is a tremendous increase of 268%.
