Odisha has emerged in the rank of top ten performing States in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI) in the country.
According to a report by the State Bank of India (SBI) on the Subnational Human Development Index (SHDI) for different States for the period 1990 to 2017, Odisha is the best-performing State in Eastern India in terms of HDI improvement.
Odisha secured the third position in terms of CAGR of social expenditure at 15.1%. The report said that Odisha is also a top performer in terms of improvement in per capita income due to higher economic growth rate.
The SHDI, which follows the UNDP method, is an average of the sub-national values of three dimensions, education, health and standard of living. India’s performance in some of the metrics is praiseworthy.
Though India’s situation in human development has improved significantly over the years between 1990 and 2017, the country’s HDI value increased from 0.427 to 0.640, an increase of nearly 50%), its position is still lowest among its peer countries (Asian and Developing economies). As per the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI), India is ranked 130 among 189 countries.
However, India’s performance in some of the metrics is commendable between 1990 and 2017. India’s life expectancy at birth has increased by nearly 11 years with even more significant gains in expected years of schooling where today’s Indian school-going children can expect to stay in school for 4.7 years longer than in 1990.
The recently-released data on SHDI for Indian States during the period 1990 to 2017 by the Global Data Lab throws some interesting results. The States were ranked based on their scores (highest scores ordered as Rank 1). The 2017 HDI scores indicate that the States like Kerala, Goa and Punjab occupy the top three positions while the States like Bihar, UP and MP are in the bottom of the rank.
“If we look at the change in ranks for all the States between 990 and 2017, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have seen a significant jump in their HDI rank, while most of the North Eastern states like Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur have seen slippages in the ranking. Both UP and Bihar have continued to remain at the bottom of the rank in the last 27 years,” the data stated.
Another interesting fact is that the States which were the worst-performing ones in HDI during 1990s are presently doing well in the social parameter since 2014. The States like Rajasthan, UP, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh have seen the largest jump in a change in HDI value among the 25 major States.
The region-wise trend of HDI scores suggests that most southern and northern States have performed much better as compared to their respective peers. Eastern States have a poor performance in HDI. The gap between the eastern region and the rest of the regions which was widening till 2014 has either declined or remain the same since 2015. This could be attributed to higher economic growth in the eastern States, mainly Odisha and Bihar.
The survey recommended the Ayushman Bharat Yojana or the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), stating, “Once properly rolled out and adopted across States, the schemes could improve the HDI value both at the national and sub-national levels in the coming years.