Where India stands on global indices after 74 years of independence

India is celebrating its 75th Independence Day this year, and the country has had a long, arduous journey towards reaching where it is.

As a nascent country in 1947, India had to fight its way up the ladder of development, facing several geopolitical and local issues such as war with its neighbours, nuclear tests that earned it the ire of its allies, major terror attacks on its soil, internal strife and much more.

All this has been a series of trials and tribulations the country has had to face as it reaches 74 years of Independence. Here's where the country stands in the global scale through its presence on five indices.

We selected India's position on the Human Development Index by the United Nations, the World Happiness Index, the Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation, the percentage of women in Parliament by The World Bank and the Globalisation index by The Swiss Institute of Technology.

India dropped one spot to 131 among 189 countries in the 2020 human development index after showing a steady rise over the years, byt according to UNDP Resident Representative Shoko Noda, the drop ranking doesn't mean "India didn't do well but other countries did better".

According to the report published by the United Nations Development Programme, India's gross national income per capita also fell to $6,681 in 2019 from $6,829 in 2018 on purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.

Converesely, India has shown a consistent downward trend in the World Happiness Report, which measures the percieved happiness of citizens in 149 countries on a number of factors. The 2021 report focussed on Covid-19, and the report said its aim was two-fold, first to focus on the effects of Covid-19 on the structure and quality of people’s lives, and second to describe and evaluate how governments all over the world have dealt with the pandemic. "In particular, we try to explain why some countries have done so much better than others," the report said.

Meanwhile, India ranked 121st on the economic freedom index in 2021, with the overall score unchanged since 2020. According to The Heritage Foundation, which publishes the index, the country made improvements in ease of doing business, which was offset with decline in judicial effectiveness and other factors, leading to the stagnant placing.

"The Indian economy remains in the mid-range of the mostly unfree category. A move toward greater economic freedom would require substantial and broad-based reforms. In addition to taking steps to improve fiscal health and strengthen the rule of law, the government would need to increase financial freedom and reform the tax code, the investment regime, and the labour code," the report said.

Methodology

The purpose of choosing these indices was to provide an overall picture of national development as the Human Development Index shows a composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators; the World Happiness Index, which shows the ranking of national happiness, including factors such as quality of life; the Globalisation Index, which measures the economic, social and political dimensions of globalisation; and the percentage of women in Parliament, which measures the extent of gender equality and representation for women in a country's legislative body.

For the purposes of comparison, each index was normalised to a scale of 100, i.e., all relevant indices were either multiplied or divided by a value of 100 so as to present a picture that is easier to understand, as some indices (such as Human Development Index) measure on a scale of 0-1, while others (such as the Happiness Index) measure on a scale of 0-10.

(With agency inputs)