Human Development Index (HDI)

3.1 Origins and Construction

The Human Development Index was conceptualised by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in collaboration with Amartya Sen and first published in UNDP's Human Development Report in 1990. It was designed to shift the development debate from economic growth to people-centred outcomes.

HDI measures three dimensions:

Dimension	Indicator	Min–Max Values
Long and healthy life	Life Expectancy at Birth	20–85 years
Knowledge	Mean Years of Schooling + Expected Years of Schooling	0–18 and 0–18
Decent standard of living	GNI per capita (2017 PPP $)	$100–$75,000

Calculation method: Each dimension is normalised to a 0–1 range, then HDI = Geometric Mean of three dimension indices. The geometric mean (unlike arithmetic mean) penalises imbalance — a country with high income but low education scores lower than one with balanced scores.

HDI Classification (2023 thresholds):

• Very High: ≥ 0.800
• High: 0.700–0.799
• Medium: 0.550–0.699
• Low: < 0.550

3.2 India's HDI Performance

India's HDI 2023: 0.644 | Rank: 134/193 | Category: Medium Human Development

India's HDI progress over decades:

• 1990: 0.429 → 2000: 0.492 → 2010: 0.572 → 2020: 0.640 → 2023: 0.644

Notable achievements:

• Life expectancy improved from 59.6 years (1990) to 67.7 years (2023)
• Mean years of schooling: 6.6 years (2023)
• GNI per capita (PPP): $9,047 (2023)

Gender Development Index (GDI) = HDI(female) / HDI(male). India's GDI value is 0.849 (2023), indicating females have lower HD outcomes than males.

Gender Inequality Index (GII): India ranks 108/166 in GII 2023 — reflecting poor maternal mortality, adolescent birth rate, and female labour force participation.

3.3 Allied Human Development Indicators

Index	Published by	What It Measures
MPI (Multidimensional Poverty Index)	UNDP + OPHI	Poverty across health, education, living standards (10 indicators)
GII (Gender Inequality Index)	UNDP	Inequality due to gender in reproductive health, empowerment, labour
GHI (Global Hunger Index)	IFPRI + Welthungerhilfe	Hunger across undernourishment, child stunting, wasting, mortality
World Happiness Report	UN SDSN	Life satisfaction, social support, freedom, generosity
SDG Index	SDSN	Progress on 17 SDGs

India in MPI 2023: 234.8 million people lifted out of poverty between 2005–2021 (largest absolute reduction globally). National MPI 2023 shows 14.96% multidimensional poor.

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