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India slides down to 127 in HDI, Pant seeks to downplay it
New Delhi, July 08: India`s rank in human development rating has slipped to 127 from 124 in the previous year, even as it made rapid strides in reducing poverty and improving education as compared to neighbours like Pakistan and Nepal, the UNDP report for 2003 shows.
New Delhi, July 08: India's rank in human development rating has slipped to 127 from 124 in the previous year, even as it made rapid strides in reducing poverty and improving
education as compared to neighbours like Pakistan and Nepal, the UNDP report for 2003 shows.
The report attributed India's position mainly to gaps in literacy between the under-privileged sections of the society and the rest of the population, under-nutrition, poor
infrastructure and high mortality rates.
Planning commission deputy chairman K C Pant, however, sought to downplay India's slippage by three places, saying it had been due to inclusion of three countries.
"There has not been an improvement in the relative ranking of India over last year. Its rank has in fact dropped by three positions, primarily due to the addition of two new countries; Bosnia and Herzegovina and Botswana have moved above us this year," he said, releasing the report here today.
Though critical of high infant mortality in the rural areas, especially of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, the UNDP report, however, took special note of India's four per cent annual growth in per capita growth during 1990-2000.
Pointing to certain data inconsistencies in various tables of the report, pant said, "this can create unintended impressions which are better avoided. The HDR is today a well accepted and powerful advocacy instrument, which enjoins a degree of responsibility on the UNDP that did not perhaps exist during the formative years".
Bureau Report
Planning commission deputy chairman K C Pant, however, sought to downplay India's slippage by three places, saying it had been due to inclusion of three countries.
"There has not been an improvement in the relative ranking of India over last year. Its rank has in fact dropped by three positions, primarily due to the addition of two new countries; Bosnia and Herzegovina and Botswana have moved above us this year," he said, releasing the report here today.
Though critical of high infant mortality in the rural areas, especially of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, the UNDP report, however, took special note of India's four per cent annual growth in per capita growth during 1990-2000.
Pointing to certain data inconsistencies in various tables of the report, pant said, "this can create unintended impressions which are better avoided. The HDR is today a well accepted and powerful advocacy instrument, which enjoins a degree of responsibility on the UNDP that did not perhaps exist during the formative years".
Bureau Report