India drops two spots in UN’s Human Development Index

India drops two spots: As per a recent report by UNDP, India slipped two ranks to 131 in the Human Development Index

India slipped two spots on the 2020 Human Development Index to 131 among 189 countries worldwide. As per a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Tuesday, Asia’s third-largest economy dropped to 131 in 2019 from 129 in 2018 in the human development index. 

The report measures the national progress of a country by income, gross domestic product as well as other development indicators such as health outcomes, educational fulfilment, and standard of living. 

As per the report, India’s neighbouring countries such as Bhutan ranked at 129, Bangladesh ranked at 133, Nepal at 142 and Pakistan stood at 154 in the index. These South Asian countries were placed under a group of countries with medium human development, the report said. India was also put under the medium human development category after its HDI value for 2019 was measured at 0.645.

However, other Asian economies such as Malaysia featured in the category of nations of high human development as it gained the 62nd spot in the list. Countries like China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines also figured in the category of economies with high human development ahead of India.

Norway emerged at the top of the index, followed by Ireland, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Iceland in the top five.

The report stated that India’s gross national income per capita dropped from $6,829 in 2018 to $6,681 in 2019 on a purchasing power parity basis. India is also facing higher malnutrition among girls than among boys as a result of paramount differences in responses in parent behaviour and disinvestment in health and education for girl children. 

For a number of development indicators in the report, India figured in the bottom third, such as healthcare quality, sex ratio, education and high ratio of people in vulnerable employment.

Addressing the media over the development, UNDP Resident Representative Shoko Noda lauded India’s commitment and efforts towards reducing global carbon emissions. She expressed confidence in India to help other countries in their commitment to cut down carbon emissions. She asserted that a drop in India’s ranking does not mean that the nation did not do well but other countries are doing better. 

The report highlighted India’s pledge to cut down carbon emission from its 2005 level by 33-35 percent by 2030 as part of the Paris Agreement. In addition, India has also vowed to achieve 40 percent of electric power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2030.