• India has moved up a rank on the global Human Development Index (HDI), according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report ‘Breaking the gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarised world’.
  • Switzerland has been ranked number one.
• The report stated that while India ranked 135 in 2021, it had moved up to 134 in 2022.
  • A total of 193 countries were ranked in 2022 and 191 countries in 2021.
  • India’s HDI value increases from 0.633 to 0.644 in 2022
• India’s Neighbors
  • Sri Lanka has been ranked much ahead at 78, while China is ranked 75, both categorised under the High Human Development category.
  • India also ranks below Bhutan stands at 125 and Bangladesh is in the 129th position.
    • India, Bhutan and Bangladesh are all in the Medium Human Development category.
  • Nepal (146) and Pakistan (164) have been ranked lower than India.

Specific findings

• India’s life expectancy at birth has slightly improved from 67.2 years in 2021 to 67.7 years in 2022.
• There is an overall increase (5.88%) in expected years of schooling (EYS) from 11.9 years to 12.6 years, leading to an improvement of 18 places when the EYS aspect was considered.
• The Gross National Income (GNI) per capita also improved from $6,542 to $6,951.
• India demonstrated progress in reducing gender inequality. India’s GII value of 0.437 is better than the global and South Asian averages.