Life in India is better now: UN report

India has marginally improved its position to 126th place, one point higher than last year, on United Nations Human Development Index, which measures achievements in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income.

Pakistan too moves up one point but is still nine points below India at 135 in the flagship study produced annually by the United Nations Development Programme.

In the South Asian region, Bangladesh moved up by two points to 137, Sri Lanka maintained its position at 93, Maldives lost ground by two point to go down to 98, Nepal was down by two points to 138 and Bhutan occupied 135 compared with 134 a year ago. China is at 81st position while Honk Kong occupies 22nd position.

The index reveals that 18 of the world's poorest countries with a total population of 460 million are doing worse on most key human development indicators than earlier years and the gap between the richest and the poorest countries is growing as sub-Saharan Africa stagnates.

The top five positions are occupied by Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden among 177 countries evaluated by UNDP. On the other end of the scale are Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sierra Leone and Niger.

The Index, which is based on analyses of 2004 data, does not include 17 UN member States, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, citing lack of sufficient data.

Among developed nations, Japan occupies 7th position, the US 8th, France 16th, Britain 18th, Germany 21st and Russia 65th. They are listed among Medium Human Development Nations.

India casts doubt

India, however questioned the ranking, saying comparisons should be between equals.

"Just as you cannot compare Maldives with India, you cannot compare us with countries like Norway, Sweden or Singapore which are far more developed," Union Minister of Water Resources Saifuddin Soz told reporters in New York while releasing the UNDP Human Develpoment Report, 2006.

Soz said India had made 'spectacular progress' in many fields and it was not necessarily reflected by the index.

"The ranking should be on the basis of comparisons between equal countries in terms of size and population," he said, adding UNDP had been comparing big countries like India and China with other smaller countries.

Soz said in future UNDP should think about the ranking system and find new tools to give a more appropriate picture.

The index, which measures achievements in terms of life expectancy, education and adjusted real income, ranked 177 countries with Norway on top and Niger at the bottom.

UNDP Policy Specialist Arunabha Ghosh, however, said the rankings were limited to comparable data.

"We do not use absolute numbers but percentage," he said.

Ghosh, however, said India has moved beyond the mere rankings to achieve human development.

India has been a success and was one of the few countries, which produces human development reports at state levels, he said.