NEW DELHI: India has moved up by one rank on Human Development Index as per the United Nations Development Programme. It now ranks 129 out of 189 countries on HDI 2019, marking incremental improvement from last year’s ranking of 130.In India, 27.1 crore people were lifted out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16, UNDP India resident representative Shoko Noda said.
“This steady progress caps nearly three decades of rapid development, which have seen a dramatic reduction in absolute poverty, along with gains in life expectancy, education, and access to health care,” said a statement by UNDP.
The Asia-Pacific region which has witnessed the steepest rise globally in human development, leads the world in access to broadband internet but continues to grapple with widespread multidimensional poverty, especially in India and the rest of South Asia, and may be vulnerable to a new set of inequalities emerging around higher education and climate resilience, the world body highlighted.
While the gap in basic standards is narrowing, said the UNDP, the next generation of inequalities is opening up.“This is the new face of inequality,” says UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. “And as this Human Development Report sets out, inequality is not beyond solutions,” he added.