Human Development in India: Levels and Inequalities

This chapter first develops the concept of the Human Development Index and analyzes India’s recent performance with regard to this criterion. The incidence of poverty and inequality and constituent states is then analyzed in some detail. Results using both the traditional as well as the Tendulkar committee report’s notion of poverty are also analyzed. Two controversies that have come up recently in the area of measurement of poverty in India are discussed, as are the links between hunger, inequality and poverty.