Human Development Report

Defining Human Development:

Human development is defined as the process of enlarging people’s freedoms and opportunities and improving their well-being. Human development is about the real freedom ordinary people have to decide who to be, what to do, and how to live. 

Central to the human development approach is the concept of capabilities. Capabilities—what people can do and what they can become-are the equipment one has to pursue a life of value. Basic capabilities valued by virtually everyone include: good health, access to knowledge, and a decent material standard of living. 

The History of Human Development:

The human development concept was developed by economist Mahbub ul Haq. At the World Bank in the 1970s, and later as minister of finance in his own country, Pakistan, Dr. Haq argued that existing measures of human progress failed to account for the true purpose of development which was to improve people’s lives. To be more exact, he believed that the commonly used measure of Gross Domestic Product failed to adequately measure well-being. Working with Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and other gifted economists, in 1990 Dr. Haq published the first Human Development Report, which was commissioned by the United Nations Development Program. 

Human Development Report Information

Indicators:

Education: 

 

Mean years of schooling: 4.43

Poverty: 

Population in multidimensional poverty (%): 55.28

Demography:

Population total (millions): 1,252.14

Public Data Explorer:

While looking at the public data explorer, I realized that India was low on the graph, at 0.38 for the year 1980. At the year 2013, India was at 0.59.

All information about India in this blog can be found at: 

References:http://hdr.undp.org/en
http://www.measureofamerica.org/human-development/

http://www.livescience.com/28634-indian-culture.html