Human development

Topic: Measuring Development: Income, HDI and Sustainability · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 1 "Development"; Class 10, Ch 2 "Sectors of the Indian Economy"; Class 11, Ch 4 "Human Capital Formation in India"; Class 11, Ch 8 "Comparative Development Experiences of India and its Neighbours"

Meaning

Human development is the process of widening people's choices so they can live long, healthy and educated lives that they value. It treats people as ends in themselves, not only as tools for producing more output. So basic education and basic health matter even when they add nothing to productivity. Every person has a right to be literate and lead a healthy life.

Why it matters: it changes the test of development. The question is not "how much income did the country make?" but "what is happening to its citizens: their health, their knowledge, their freedom to choose?" UNDP measures it with the Human Development Index (HDI):

HDI = (I_health × I_education × I_income)^(1/3)

This is the geometric mean (multiply the three indices, then take the cube root).

Explanation

The idea: people as ends, not means

• Human capital means the skills, education and health stored in people that make them more productive workers. It sees people as a means to an end. The end is higher labour productivity (more output from each worker).
• Human development is the broader idea.
• Education and health are part of well-being itself, not just inputs.
• Without literacy and a long, healthy life, people cannot make "other choices which they value".
• Spending that does not raise output is still worthwhile.

• Example: teaching a 70-year-old to read may add nothing to GDP. It is still human development.

• Why income alone is not enough (Class 12, National Income Accounting):

• GDP does not show how income is distributed. GDP can rise while the poor get poorer.
• GDP leaves out non-monetary exchanges, such as unpaid work at home or barter.
• GDP ignores externalities, meaning harm or benefit to others that nobody pays for (e.g. factory pollution).
• So a higher GDP does not always mean higher welfare.

Intellectual roots

• Amartya Sen's capability approach
• Development is judged by how far people's real freedoms (capabilities) to lead lives they value have grown.
• Functionings: what a person actually is or does, such as being well fed or being literate.
• Capabilities: the full set of functionings a person is free to choose from.
• Example: a person who is fasting and a person who is starving both go without food. Only the one who is fasting has the capability to eat.

• Key book: Development as Freedom (1999).

• Mahbub ul Haq, a Pakistani economist, launched UNDP's first Human Development Report (HDR) in 1990. Amartya Sen helped him design the index.

• Class 10 NCERT: putting "Human" before "Development" makes clear that "what is important in development is what is happening to citizens … their health, their well being".

How the HDI is built (UNDP)

The HDI is a composite index (one number made by combining several indicators). It runs from 0 to 1.

Dimension	Indicator	Goalposts (min – max)
Long and healthy life	Life expectancy at birth (the average number of years a newborn is expected to live)	20 – 85 years
Knowledge	Expected years of schooling (EYS): the years of school a child of school-entry age can expect to get if today's enrolment rates continue	0 – 18 years
	Mean years of schooling (MYS): the average years of education that adults aged 25 and above have actually completed	0 – 15 years
Decent standard of living	GNI per capita (2021 PPP $), log-transformed	$100 – $75,000

• GNI (Gross National Income): GDP plus net income from abroad.
• PPP (purchasing power parity): an exchange rate that adjusts for local prices, so that $1 buys the same basket of goods in every country.
• Goalposts: fixed minimum and maximum values. They turn indicators in different units (years, dollars) into scores between 0 and 1.

Steps

1. Dimension index = (actual value − minimum) ÷ (maximum − minimum)
2. Education index = (MYS index + EYS index) ÷ 2

3. Income index = [ln(GNI pc) − ln(100)] ÷ [ln(75,000) − ln(100)] - The log (ln) is used because each extra dollar matters less as income rises. - $1,000 more changes a lot for a family earning $2,000 a year. It changes very little for a family earning $60,000.

4. HDI = geometric mean of the three indices.

Why the geometric mean? A worked example

• A weak score in one dimension is not fully made up for by a strong score in another. Balanced progress scores higher.
• Country A has indices 0.9, 0.9 and 0.3.
• Arithmetic mean = 2.1 ÷ 3 = 0.700

• Geometric mean = (0.9 × 0.9 × 0.3)^(1/3) = (0.243)^(1/3) ≈ 0.624

• Country B has indices 0.7, 0.7 and 0.7. Both means = 0.700.

• Under the geometric mean, the balanced Country B ranks above the lopsided Country A.

Old method (before 2010) vs now

• Before 2010, the HDI was an arithmetic mean (simple average) of:
• life expectancy
• education: adult literacy rate (2/3 weight) + combined gross enrolment ratio (GER) (1/3 weight). GER is total enrolment at a level of schooling, as a percentage of the population of the official age for that level.

• GDP per capita (PPP)

• In the 2010 revision:

• MYS and EYS replaced literacy and GER.
• GNI replaced GDP.
• The geometric mean replaced the arithmetic mean.

HDI categories

Category	HDI value
Very high	≥ 0.800
High	0.700 – 0.799
Medium	0.550 – 0.699
Low	< 0.550

What makes the HDI rise or fall: longer lives, more years of school (for children and adults), and higher real income. Because of the geometric mean, raising the weakest dimension lifts the HDI the most.

In India

• Who measures it: UNDP, through its annual Human Development Report. HDR 2025 was released on 6 May 2025. Its theme is "A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI".
• Latest figures (HDR 2025, data year 2023):
• HDI rose from 0.676 (2022) to 0.685 (2023). India stays in the medium category, close to the high threshold of 0.700 [2].
• Rank moved from 133 (2022) to 130 of 193 (2023). India is tied with Bangladesh [2].
• India's HDI value has risen by over 53% since 1990. This is faster than both the global and the South Asian averages [2].

• Life expectancy rose from 58.6 years (1990) to 72.0 years (2023), India's highest since the index began [2].

• Worked check for India (2023):

• Health index = (72.0 − 20) ÷ (85 − 20) = 52 ÷ 65 = 0.800
• EYS index = 13.0 ÷ 18 = 0.722. MYS index = 6.9 ÷ 15 = 0.460. Education index = (0.722 + 0.460) ÷ 2 = 0.591
• Income index = ln(9,047 ÷ 100) ÷ ln(75,000 ÷ 100) = 4.505 ÷ 6.620 = 0.681
• HDI = (0.800 × 0.591 × 0.681)^(1/3) = (0.322)^(1/3) ≈ 0.685 ✔

• The weakest link is schooling. Indian adults (25+) have only 6.9 years of schooling on average, less than half the 15-year goalpost.

• Inequality: the Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) lowers each dimension's score by how unequally it is shared among people. Inequality cuts India's HDI by 30.7% (2023), one of the highest losses in the region [2].

• Gender gaps: female labour force participation and women's political representation lag behind. The constitutional amendment reserving one-third of legislative seats for women is seen as a hopeful step [2].
• Neighbours (HDR 2025, data year 2023):

Country	GNI pc (2021 PPP $)	Life expectancy (years)	MYS, 25+ (years)	HDI rank (of 193)
Sri Lanka	12,616	77.5	10.8	89
China	22,029	78.0	8.0	78 (HDI 0.797)
India	9,047	72.0	6.9	130 (HDI 0.685)
Bangladesh	8,498	74.7	6.8	130
Nepal	4,726	70.4	4.5	145
Myanmar	4,919	66.9	6.4	150
Pakistan	5,501	67.6	4.3	168 (HDI 0.544, low)

• Bhutan ranks 127, above India [2].
• Rank conflict: the UN India press release gives China 75th, Sri Lanka 78th and Myanmar 149th [2]. The NCERT figures are China 78, Sri Lanka 89 and Myanmar 150. China's HDI of 0.797 fits a rank near 78. Check the HDR 2025 statistical table before quoting these ranks.

• Bangladesh has lower income than India but a longer life expectancy (74.7 vs 72.0). NCERT says the same about Nepal, but Nepal's 70.4 is below India's 72.0, so treat that claim with caution.

• Global picture: HDR 2025 finds that world human development progress is at its slowest pace since 1990 [4].

• Newer data: no HDR 2026 was found as of September 2026. UNdata lists its next HDI data update for 1 December 2026 [3]. Keep quoting HDR 2025, but check again before the exam.
• NCERT table errors:
• Class 10 Table 1.6 heads its rank column "2021-22", but the values are HDR 2025's figures for 2023.
• Class 11 Table 8.5 gives MYS for people aged "15 and above" and "in %". UNDP uses 25 and above, and MYS is measured in years.

Don't confuse with

• Human capital: it sees education and health as inputs that raise productivity, so people are a means. Human development sees people as ends in themselves, so education and health matter even with no gain in output.
• Economic growth (GDP rise): growth is a rise in output. It ignores how income is shared, unpaid work and pollution. A country can grow fast and still score low on human development.
• HDI: human development is the idea. The HDI is only UNDP's measure of it, using three dimensions. It leaves out freedom, environment, security and the quality of schooling.
• IHDI: the HDI is a national average. The IHDI cuts that average by how unequally health, education and income are shared. India loses 30.7% this way [2].

Prelims Hooks

• The HDI has three dimensions: health (life expectancy, 20–85 years), knowledge (MYS for adults 25+, goalpost 15 years; EYS for children of school-entry age, goalpost 18 years) and standard of living (GNI, not GDP, per capita in 2021 PPP $, $100–$75,000, log-transformed).
• Since 2010, the HDI has been a geometric mean. Trap: "arithmetic mean using adult literacy and GER" describes the pre-2010 method.
• The first HDR came out in 1990 under Mahbub ul Haq. Amartya Sen gave it the capability approach (Development as Freedom, 1999).
• HDR 2025: India is 130/193, HDI 0.685 (2023), up from 0.676 (2022), in the medium category and tied with Bangladesh [2].
• Categories: very high ≥ 0.800; high 0.700–0.799; medium 0.550–0.699; low < 0.550. Pakistan (0.544) is in the "low" category.
• Human capital treats people as a means (productivity). Human development treats them as ends in themselves.

Mains Points

• Schooling is India's weakest HDI link.
• Education index 0.591 vs health index 0.800 (2023). Adult MYS is only 6.9 years.
• Under the geometric mean, raising the weakest dimension lifts the HDI the most.

• So spending on foundational learning and adult education gives the highest payoff (GS-II/III).

• Growth is not the same as development.

• Sri Lanka and Bangladesh match or beat India on life expectancy, and Bangladesh does so with a lower income than India.

• How growth is shared through public health and education matters more than GDP alone. This is the capability approach's argument against judging development by GDP alone.

• Averages hide inequality.

• A 30.7% loss under the IHDI and low female labour force participation [2] mean the national HDI makes things look better than they are for the typical Indian.
• Policy answer: target spending by gender, region and caste, not only by national averages.
• The HDI also leaves out environment and freedom. A rise in HDI bought by using up natural resources may not last, which links this topic to sustainability.

Related concepts

• Capability approach
• Human Development Index
• Mean years of schooling

Read more

• Human development: the idea and the HDI