{"id":210942,"date":"2022-10-18T19:26:14","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T13:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=210942"},"modified":"2022-10-18T19:26:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T13:56:14","slug":"fact-checking-the-hdi-tally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/fact-checking-the-hdi-tally\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact-Checking The HDI Tally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cFact-Checking The HDI Tally\u201d<\/strong> published in The Times of India <\/strong>on\u00a018th<\/sup>\u00a0October 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 2 \u2013 Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About the concerns associated with the Human Development Index, 2022.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The Human Development Index is the second most widely used indicator for measuring economic progress after national income statistics (GDP). India\u2019s rank has not improved over the last two decades and declined by one place in 2022.<\/p>\n

About Human Development Index-2022?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Read more: India ranks 132 in UNDP\u2019s Human Development Index, amid a global fall<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What are the challenges associated with the HDI-2022?<\/h5>\n

Calculating life expectancy at birth<\/b>: The estimate used for India was cut by 3. 67 years (70. 9 years to 67. 2 years) from 2019 to 2021. The UN agency claims that this cut reflects Covid-related mortality but this has a few serious flaws. Such as,<\/p>\n

a)<\/strong> It is a conceptual mistake to lower life expectancy at birth because of a virus that, according to evidence, only kills adults.<\/p>\n

b)<\/strong> The UNDP did not explain its saying that Covid will be around in 20 years to impact today\u2019s newborns with the same virulence as at its peak in 2020-21.<\/p>\n

c)<\/strong> The UNDP adjusted India\u2019s mortality rates for \u201cexcess deaths\u201d from Covid as estimated by WHO. This is in addition to the adjustment routinely done on grounds that India\u2019s data is underreported. But, India objected to WHO estimates in May 2022 by pointing out various flaws in their methodology \u2013 such as the use of media reports and the use of parameters like test positivity rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read here: WHO estimates 4.7 million COVID-19-linked deaths in India<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

d)<\/strong> The UN\u2019s reduction of 3. 67 years in India\u2019s life expectancy is not justified even after including WHO\u2019s flawed numbers. On the other hand, the cut in life expectancy for the US is 1. 94 years, UK 0. 98 years, Italy 0. 70 years, Brazil 2. 7 years \u2013 all substantially lower than for India.<\/p>\n

This shows a series of \u201cadjustments\u201d by UNDP has ended up skewing the Indian data and rankings.<\/p>\n

What needs to be done?<\/h5>\n

Government need to publish authentic data<\/strong>: Indian government departments need to publish data in time for important indices. This may be a problem as India\u2019s financial year runs three months behind the calendar year, but an advance estimate can be published and revised later (same as for GDP).<\/p>\n

Indian agencies should calculate relevant indicators<\/strong>: Indian agencies should not just provide raw data to external agencies but take the extra step of calculating the relevant indicator. This is not difficult as standard methodologies are available.<\/p>\n

For instance, the Registrar General of India should publish an official estimate for life expectancy every year. This will reduce the scope for manipulation by external agencies and put the burden of proof on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: The solution to India\u2019s stunted improvement on the Human Development Index: Improving access to quality education<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Overall, Indian government departments need to proactively engage with international indices and surveys \u2013 both to provide timely data and to challenge inaccurate estimates where appropriate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cFact-Checking The HDI Tally\u201d published in The Times of India on\u00a018th\u00a0October 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 \u2013 Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes. Relevance: About the concerns associated with the Human Development Index, 2022. News: The… Continue reading Fact-Checking The HDI Tally<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10496],"class_list":["post-210942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700804935,"cached_date":1704930300},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}