Human development: beyond income

In 1990 the United Nations Development Programme published the first Human Development Report, introducing the Human Development Index (HDI). The idea, developed by Mahbub ul Haq and grounded in Amartya Sen's capability approach, was that development should be judged by what people can be and do — live a long and healthy life, be educated, and enjoy a decent standard of living — not by income alone. The HDI combines three dimensions: life expectancy at birth, education (mean and expected years of schooling), and gross national income per capita, into a single score between 0 and 1.

India's trajectory on the HDI shows real progress with clear limits. In the Human Development Report 2025, India ranked 130 out of 193 countries, up from 133 in the previous edition, with its HDI value rising from 0.676 in 2022 to 0.685 in 2023, remaining in the medium human development category and approaching the 0.700 threshold for high human development. Life expectancy rose from 58.6 years in 1990 to 72 years in 2023, and schooling and incomes also improved over the same period. These gains track the poverty and health improvements described elsewhere in this series.

The HDI has well-known limits, and the UNDP itself publishes adjustments that reveal them. When adjusted for inequality, India's HDI value falls by 30.7 per cent, one of the highest losses in the region, showing how unevenly health, education and income are shared. The index also says nothing directly about political freedom, environmental sustainability, gender violence or the quality of work — a country can raise its HDI while suppressing dissent or degrading its environment. Complementary measures exist, including the Gender Development Index and the Multidimensional Poverty Index, but none captures everything.

For civil studies, the HDI's value is as a corrective. It stops a debate that begins with GDP growth from ending there, and it forces comparison across dimensions: a state or country that grows fast but leaves life expectancy and schooling behind is developing unevenly. Used alongside poverty, employment and inequality data, it gives a fuller picture of whether growth is becoming human progress.