Context: India dropped two ranks in the United Nations’ Human Development Index this year, standing at 131 out of 189 countries.

• For the first time, the United Nations Development Programme introduced a new metric to reflect the impact caused by each country’s per-capita carbon emissions and its material footprint, which measures the amount of fossil fuels, metals and other resources used to make the goods and services it consumes.
• Norway, which tops the HDI, falls 15 places if this metric is used, leaving Ireland at the top of the table.
• In fact, 50 countries would drop entirely out of the “very high human development group” category, using this new metric, called the Planetary Pressures-adjusted HDI, or PHDI.
• China’s net emissions (8 gigatonnes) are 34% below its territorial emissions (12.5 gigatonnes) compared with 19% in India and 15% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• No country has yet been able to achieve a very high level of development without putting a huge strain on natural resources.

HDI

• It is an assessment of a nation’s health, education and standards of living.
• The United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI) provides a single index measure to capture three key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
• The HDI utilizes four key metrics:
  • life expectancy at birth – to assess a long and healthy life
  • expected years of schooling – to assess access to knowledge of the young generation
  • average years of schooling – to assess access to knowledge of the older generation
  • gross national income (GNI) per capita – to assess the standard of living
• Although this year’s report covers 2019 only, and does not account for the impact of COVID, it projected that in 2020, global HDI would fall below for the first time in the three decades since the Index was introduced.

• According to the report, India’s gross national income per capita fell to $6,681 in 2019 from $6,829 in 2018 on purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.
  • Purchasing power parity or PPP is a measurement of prices in different countries that uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries’ currencies.
• Indigenous children in Cambodia, India and Thailand show more malnutrition-related issues such as stunting and wasting.
• In India, different responses in parent behaviour as well as some disinvestment in girls’ health and education have led to higher malnutrition among girls than among boys as a consequence of shocks likely linked to climate change.
• Although, under the Paris Agreement, India pledged to reduce the emission intensity of its GDP from the 2005 level by 33-35% by 2030 and to obtain 40% of electric power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
• As part of the plan, the National Solar Mission aims to promote solar energy for power generation and other uses to make solar energy competitive with fossil fuel—based options.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-ranks-131-in-2020-un-human-development-index/article33348091.ece

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