DEVELOPMENT
The meaning of development -
Development is defined as the economic growth of people as well as the growth of their basic needs
like education, healthcare, standard of living, etc.,
It is measured in two levels –
Development
Economy / country
Individual (Individual
(National
developmental goals)
Developmental Goals)
What development promises –
Different people have different goals.
The notion for development is different for each individual. Two people or groups of people may have
conflicting or contradictory views of development. So what may be development for one may not be
development for the others.
Individual Developmental goals –
For every individual, development goals may be different, development is Subjective. Some of such
cases are listed below:
Farmer Labourers Rural people Women/ Girls Educated youth Adivasi/ Tribal
•Irrigational •Better wages •Access to •Equality / equal •employment •Rights on their
facilities •Employment electricity opportunities opportunities land so that they
•increase in throughout the •Employment that their male •regular and cannot be
Minimum year, regular opportunities / counterpar optimum wages displaced
support price wages employment experiences / salaries •Access to
•subsidy on •Access to generation •freedom to •job security electricity,
chemical education for schemes exhibit their •fixed working education and
fertilizers and his children •better choices hours healthcare
pesticides / educational •Equal respect •better
seeds facilities and •Security in the transportation
healthcare. society and
communication
facilities
What may be development for one may not be development for other. It may even have negative
impact on the others. Few of such examples is discussed below:
Construction of dam Positive impact -
1. Irrigational facilities
2. Hydroelectricity generation
3. Employment opportunities during and post
construction
Negative Impact -
1. Migration / displacement of the people living
there.
[Link] agricultural lands
3. Deforestation and Soil erosion
Income and other goals –
These are broadly of two types –
1. Material development / Monetary based criteria – Money, house, salary, car, gold etc.,
2. Non-material development / non-monetary based criteria – security, freedom, education,
healthcare, respect etc.,
It will be wrong to conclude that what cannot be measured is not important. For example, when
accepting a job we look for both material and non-material criteria. We consider high salary, working
hours, increments, (material), working atmosphere, facilities for family, security, regular employment
(non-material).
Similarly, for development, people look at a mix of goals.
National Development –
Individuals seek different goals, then their notion of national development is also likely to be
different. They may have different as well as conflicting notions of a country’s development.
We compare the different countries or states mostly on the basis of the income of the economy.
We say when Country’s Income increases it means the country has developed.
Income of a country or National Income refers to the income of all the residents of a country
during a period of one accounting year.
Average income or Per Capita Income (PCI) refers to the average earning of an individual in an
economy during the period of one accounting year.
𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 (𝑃𝐶𝐼) =
𝑃𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦
Over the years, we have seen significant changes in per capita income in the Indian economy.
PER CAPITA (US $) INDIA GDP PER CAPITA
2480.79
2352.61
2239.61
1907.04
1347.52
442.75
371.09
271.08
114.36
84.93
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2021 2022 2023
Now, comparing the different states of India, on the basis of Per capita income we observe –
GDP PERCAPITA OF EACH STATE AS PER 2023-24
DATA PCI (US $)
8365
7980
6058
5975
4653
4354
4282
4181
3985
3779
3758
3668
3498
3399
3276
3260
3197
2827
2696
2346
2282
2217
2143
2122
2112
1878
1850
1849
1761
1490
1372
1271
790
As per 2019 data, countries with US $49300 per annum are considered rich countries. The countries
with US $ 2500 or less are considered low income countries or underdeveloped countries.
Classification of countries on the basis of development-
The World Bank classifies the countries every year on the basis of their PCI per annum.
On the basis of World Bank’s data of PCI of the year 2023 the countries are divided into these three
categories-
DEVELOPED
The countries with a per capita income
above $13845 like USA, Germany, Japan
DEVELOPING
Countries on the basis of their The countries with a per capita income
development between $13845 - $1136 like India,
Egypt, Brazil, South Africa
UNDER-DEVELOPED
The countries with a per capita income
less than $1135 like Ethiopia.
Afghanisthan, Mali
The World Bank does not use the terms ‘developing’ or ‘under-developed’ for official classification.
Instead, it categorizes economies into four income groups based on GNI (Gross National Income) per
capita;
Classifications GNI per capita (US $) in 2023
Low income ≤ $1,135
Lower-Middle income $1,136 - $4,495
Upper-Middle Income $4,496- $13,845
High income >$13,845
Problems with this criteria or classification:
It considers only income, not other aspects like literacy, health.
It hides disparities among the different communities and groups in the economy.
It does not indicate about distribution of income.
Other criteria:
Literacy rate: it measures the proportion of literate population in the age group of 7
and above who can read, write and speak with understanding in any language. It
serves as a key indicator of a region’s educational development and human capital.
Infant Mortality Rate: it indicates the number of infants that die before the age of
one year as a proportion of 1000 children born in that particular year. It serves as a
primary indicator of a region’s overall health quality and standard of living.
Net Attendance Ratio: The total number of children of the age group attending
school on a regular basis as a percentage of total number of children in the same age
group. Example: if there are 2000 children in the age group of 14 to 15 and 1345
children among them attend school on a regular basis so the NAR says 67.25%.
Let’s compare few states on the basis of PCI, Literacy rate, IMR, NAR as per data of the year
2023.
States Per Capita Literacy Rate Infant Mortality Net Attendance
Income Rate (per 1000) Ratio (14-15 age
group)
Haryana 4282 84.8% 26 61%
Kerala 3758 95.3% 5 83%
Bihar 790 74.3% 23 43%
Public Facilities-
Money in our pocket cannot necessarily buy all the goods and services that we may need to live well.
Like a pollution-free environment, protection from infectious diseases etc.,
So, for many important things in life, the best and cheapest way is to produce these goods and
services collectively in bulk. Example- transportation, security, medicine etc.,
The public facilities are such production activities which provides goods and services to a larger
amount of people and thus are comparatively cheaper. They work for the collective welfare of the
society to ensure overall development. Some of such includes education and healthcare facilities.
For example, let’s take the example of the State of Kerala. It has low IMR because of good healthcare
and educational facilities. Similarly, in some states the Public Distribution system works well which
ensures better health care ( proper diet) to the people. So, health care and nutritional status in such
states are better.
Body Mass Index- It is a criterion / numerical value derived from weight and height. It is used to find
out whether a person has a healthy body mass.
In this case,
𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑘𝑔)𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙
𝐵𝑀𝐼 =
𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑚2 )𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑢𝑎𝑙
The result score typically falls into one of four categories:
Underweight: below 18
Healthy weight: 18 – 24.9
Overweight: 25.0 – 29.9
Obese: 30.0 or higher
Human Development Report
Income alone is inadequate measure of level of development. Other important criteria are
considered to be education and health care.
Every year Human Development Report is published by United Nations Development Programme
(UNPD). It compares countries based on educational levels of the people, health status and per
capita income.
The HDI compares the countries on the basis of Life expectancy at birth, Education level, GNI
(Gross National Income) per capita.
GNI per capita is the total value of all income earned by a country’s residents and businesses
(closed economy) divided by its total population.
Data regarding India and it’s neighbouring countries in the year 2024-25:
Country PCI (USD) Life Literacy rate Gross HDI rank in
expectancy of 15+ Enrolment the world
at birth population Ratio (3
age group levels
combined)
SRI LANKA $14691 78.9 92.6% 76.5% 89
INDIA $9047 72 81% 61.5% 130
BANGLADESH $6748 73 76.8% 60.2% 130
NEPAL $4342 71 71.2% 60.5% 145
MYANMAR $4785 67.3 93.7% 49.3% 150
PAKISTAN $5502 66.4 58% 38.6% 164
Here, although India has a higher GNI per capita than Bangladesh, Bangladesh maintains a higher
life expectance, reflecting effective public health outreach.
Myanmar shows a higher literacy rate relative to its income level, though Gross Enrolment ratio
lags behind, indicating challenges in higher education.
Life Expectancy at Birth: indicates average expected length of life of a person at the time of birth.
Gross Enrollment Ratio: means enrolment ratio for primary school, secondary school and higher
education beyond secondary school.
Sustainability of Development
It means development means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.
Renewable resources: resources that can be replenished by nature in a short period of time. Even
these resources can be overused. Example – groundwater, will be replenished only by rainwater but
when overused will cause its scarcity.
Non-renewable Resources: resources which will get exhausted after years of use. They are in a fixed
stock which cannot be replenished even in few thousand years.
That is why we always try to find other sources of resources. But even they will be perished after a
few years of their continuous usage.
For such cases we might want to keep a stock of them. One of such case scenarios are –
Crude oil reserves:
Region/ Country Reserves (Billion tones) No. of years this stock will
approximately last
Middle east (largely Saudi 115 (nearly 48% of world’s 70-80 years
Arabia, Iran, Iraq) proven reserves)
USA 9.5 11-16 years
India 0.6 (0.3% of world’s proven 10-15 years
reserves)
World total 240 50 years
Consequences of environmental degradation do not respect national or state boundaries, its not nation
specific anymore. Thus, together, we must strive to achieve sustainability of development.