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The two-odd decades after 1990 have seen 26 countries emerge as the fastest-growing, either economically or in terms of non-income dimensions of human development, such as education and health care, or in terms of both.
India, China and Brazil are among these high achievers. So are Bangladesh, Chile, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda and Vietnam.
The latest Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme, which celebrates what it calls the "Rise of the South" notes that India has reduced its shortfall in human development indicators in comparison to the world average by 24.5 per cent between 1990 and 2012, even as its Gross National Income per capita (GNI) has grown by 4.7 per cent yearly.
China reduced its HDI shortfall by 40.5 per cent and achieved an annual GNI per capita growth of 9.4 per cent, putting it on top of the pile. The other top achievers in filling the HDI gap were South Korea and Iran, despite lower economic growth than China, the report says. Algeria, Brazil and Mexico have bridged their HDI gap by 34 per cent in two decades, despite low economic growth; they also show how economic growth is not an essential ingredient for such progress. What paid human development dividends in the case of these latter three, says the report, was giving primacy to state investment in health education and nutrition, making their societies more resilient to economic, environmental and other shocks. These three countries have had less than two per cent average annual growth in GNI compared with India's 4.7 per cent, China's 9.4 per cent and Argentina's 3.5 per cent.
The report says growth does not happen automatically and it identifies three factors for this - a pro-active developmental state, tapping of global markets and determined social policy. It puts India, Indonesia, Korea and Bangladesh in the category of developmental states that have been pro-actively pursuing a policy directed towards increased social spending .
It credits India's investments in tertiary education after 1947 and its promotion of processes in the drug industry for India becoming a world leader in generic drugs. Similar tales of capacity building can be told for India's automobile and chemical industries and services, now vigorously tapping into world markets, it says.
