What do you mean by human development index? Describe its important features.
Answers
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical tool used to measure a country's overall achievement in its social and economic dimensions. The social and economic dimensions of a country are based on the health of people, their level of education attainment and their standard.
Important features of HDI :
1. Longevity: It is measured by life expectancy at birth. Life expectancy at birth means how many years a newly born infant can hope to live in this world. This represents element of health in the Human Development Index (HDI).
2. Education or Knowledge: It is measured by the weighted average of adult literacy and mean years of schooling. For this 2/3rd weight is given to adult literacy and 1/3rd weight is given to the mean years of schooling.
3. Standard of Living: It is measured by real per capita income of a country at purchasing power parity (PPP) prices, that is, adjusted for purchasing power of currencies of different countries.