Popular measures of Economic Development and social Welfare.

Following are the indicators to measure the economic development and social welfare.

1. Human Development Index(HDI)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) introduced the HDI in its first Human Development Report (HDR) prepared under the

stewardship of Mahbub-ul-Haq in 1990. It is a standard means of measuring well being. HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of the human developments, a long and healthy life. access to knowledge and a decent standard of lliving HDI tanks countries in relation to each other on a scale of 0 to 1 The Human Development Index is based on these three indices and that are as follows

Life Expectancy Index (LEI)

Because infant morality is not entering this index as a separate indicator, so here refers to life expectancy at birth, not at age one.

*Educational Attainment Index (EAI)

It is a combination of adult literacy rate and combined enrolment ratio. The weight assigned to Adult Literacy Rate (ALR) is two third while that for Combined Enrolment Ratio (CER) is one third. Therefore, educational attainment index may be

Standard of Living Index (SLI)

It is represented here by a transformation of per capita income. Per capita income are converted into Purchasing Powered Parity (PPP) is dollars. Thus

HDI = (LEI+EAI+SLI)

2. Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI)

These indicators reflected that economically less developed countries are simply underdeveloped versions of industrialised countries. Morris David constructed a composite in 1979.

Three component indicators of PQLI are as follows.

•  Infant mortality rate and
•  Life expectancy
•  Basic literacy

3. Gross National Happiness (GNH)

It attempts to measure quality of life in a more holistic manner than just an economic indicator like GDP The four pillars of GNH are promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of natural environments and establishments of good governance. The term GNH was coined in 1972, by Bhutan's then king Jigme Singya Wangchuk GNH value is proposed to be an index function of the total average

per capita of the following measures

• Economic Wellness
• Environmental Wellness 
•  Physical Wellness
• Workplace Wellness 
• Political Wellness
• Mental Wellness
•  Social Wellness

4. Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

It was developed in 2010, by control poverty and human development initiative and UNDP and different factors to determine poverty beyond income based list were used.

*Tit-Bits

•HDI was created by the Pakistani economist Mahbub-ul-Haq and the Indian economist Amartya Sen in 1990 was published by the United Nations Development Programme.

• POLI was developed for the Overseas Development Council in the mid-1970s by David Morris

• Closed economy involve neither export nor imports as the economy deem to be self sufficient. India's HDI has risen by 62% since 1980 it is 1.7% annually.

5. Global Hunger Index (CHI)

It is a multidimensional statistical tool used to describe the state of country's hunger situation. The index was adopted and furthes developed by International food policy research institute and was first published in 2006. The GHI combines there equally weighted indicators.

(i) The proportion of undernourished as a percentage of the population. 

(ii) The percentage of under weight children under the age of 5. 

(iii) The mortality rate of children under the age of 5. 

6. The Human Poverty Index

The UNDP introduced the Human Poverty Index. It is a combined measure using the dimensions of human life already considered in the HDI: life length, knowledge, a decent living standard. The index is calculated annually by the UNDP for all countries. according to the availability of statistical data. It is prepared in two forms, depending on whether it is a developing (HPI-1) or an industrialised economy (HPI-2).

The Human Poverty Index for Developing Countries (HPI-1)

The following three dimensions are taken into account are as follows

1. Deprivation of longevity, measured as a percentage of the individuals with a life expectancy lower than 40 years.

2. Deprivation of knowledge, expressed as a percentage of illiterate adults.

3. Deprivation of decent living standards. This last indicator is made up by the simple average of three basic variables; the percentage of the population without access to drinking water, the percentage of population without access to health services and lastly, the percentage of underweight children aged less than 5.

The Human Poverty Index for Industrialised Countries (HPI-2)

The human poverty index for industrialised countries uses the same dimensions of the previous index, but the variables and reference values are different

•Deprivation of longevity is measured by the percentage of individuals whose life expectancy is below 60 years of age.

• Deprivation of knowledge is based on the percentage of adults functionally illiterate according to the OECD definition.

• Deprivation of decent life standards (P3) is the percentage of the population living below the poverty level, as defined according to the criteria of the International Standard of Poverty Line, thus being equal to 50% of the per capita average national income.

7. Gender Development Index (GDI)

• It was introduced in 1995 in the Human Development Report written by the united. The Gender Development Index (GDI) is a composite indicator that measures the development of states according of the standard of living in a country.

• It is used as one of the five indicators by the United Nations Development Programme in their annual Human Development Report. It highlights inequalities in the areas of long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living between men and women.

National Prosperity Index (NPI)

The Prosperity Index goes beyond GDP to measure countries' success against a broad capital, set of metrics covering areas such as health, education, opportunity, social personal freedom and more.

Hence, we have evolved what is called a National Prosperity Index (NPI) which is a summation of 

• Annual growth rate of GDP;

• Improvement in quality of life of the people, particularly those living below the poverty line.

• The adoption of a value system derived from out civilisational heritage in every walk of life which of unique to India.

The NPI is a summation of GDP growth, improvement is quality of life of people living below the poverty line and adoption of value system derived from our civilisational heritage in every walk of life. The prosperity index is the only global index

that measures national prosperity based on both wealth and wellbeing. The index seeks to redefine the concept of national prosperity to include, as a matter of fundamental importance, factors such as democratic governance, entrepreneurial opportunity and social cohesion.

Conclusion.