India slips a rank in UN human well-being index

• India has slipped down on measure of wellbeing.
• Switzerland utmost overall well-being with HDI value of 0.962.
• Index was created to understand that economic growth of country was not sufficient to judge its development.

Ranking 132 out of 191 countries in the 2021 global Human Development Index (HDI), India has slipped further down on the measure of wellbeing, reported Hindustan Times.

A United Nations report revealed that the HDI value of India was 0.642 in 2020 but had fallen to 0.633 in 2021. It ranked behind neighbours like Sri Lanka (73rd) and Bangladesh (127th).

Switzerland came out to be the country with the utmost overall well-being with an HDI value of 0.962.

The HDI does not use a country's gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure. Instead, the index judges countries on three parameters: life expectancy, average years of schooling, and mean incomes. 

With an HDI of 0.633, India is classified as a "medium human development category country”.

India has slipped on the list second time in a row. This hints toward the need for better investments in human development and basic facilities.

The report said that the index was created to understand that the economic growth of a country was not sufficient to judge its development. It was first released in 1990.

Economist Himanshu of the Jawaharlal Nehru University said that India's progress was slow because "GDP gets more attention and human development has not become a political issue."