Bhutan better than India on Human Development Index

WORST HIT: India and Pakistan have lost two places each on the Human Development Index.

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New York: India and Pakistan lost two places each on the Human Development Index (HDI) prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compared with last year.

The just released Human Development reports places India at 128 spot among 177 countries rated by it and Pakistan is eight places below at 136. But interestingly, Myanmar is placed higher than both the countries at 132, just above Bhutan.

Sri Lanka is at 99th position and Nepal way down at 144. China gets 81st spot. Iceland narrowly passed Norway to take the top spot. Norway which had occupied top place for last six years slipped to second position as a result of new estimates of life expectancy and updated GDP per capita, the authors of the report say.

Introduced in 1999, the HDI assess the state of human development based on several factors including life expectancy, adult literacy and school enrollment at primary, secondary and tertiary levels as also income.

The top five positions are occupied by Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland. The bottom five are Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Mali.

The United States is placed at 12th position followed by Britain at 16 and Germany at 22. Japan is the only Asian country among the top ten occupying 8th spot.

Twenty-two countries, all in sub Saharan Africa, fall into the category of "low human development". In ten of these countries, two children in five will not reach the age of 40 and in case of Zambia, the figure is one in two.