NEW DELHI: Even as India appears to be at the forefront in terms of economic growth, it continues to lag in the quality of life as measured by its Human Development Index; it remains unchanged at a low 127 among 177 countries.

In comparison, the United Nations' Human Development Report 2005, which was released here on Wednesday, has a word of praise for neighbouring Bangladesh in view of the rapid human development it has achieved in spite of its moderate growth.

Despite its low ranking in the HDI carried out each year by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India, however, has shown progress in HDI valuation, having gone up from .595 last year to .602 in this year's report.

No decline in poverty

The UNDP report on human development has clearly brought out the fact that while India has moved ahead and joined the premier league of world economic growth, the accelerated growth has not resulted in a commensurate decline in poverty. On the Human Poverty Index (HPI-1), it is still ranked at 58 among 103 developing countries. "More worrying, improvements in child and infant mortality are slowing and India is now off track for these MDG (Millennium Development Goal) targets," says the report, which was launched here by the UNDP Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator, Maxine Olson.

Taking a much broader view of a country's overall development instead of just income, the HDI seeks to combine aspects such as life expectancy, school enrolment, literacy and income. Going by the country's gross domestic product (GDP), while India's ranking is 118, the per capita GDP is pegged at $2,892.

With a life expectancy of 63.3 years, India is ranked 119, while for school enrolment (60 per cent), it is placed at 131 along with a Gender Development Index (GDI) ranking of 98. Going by the status of women in the country, India is placed at 118, in terms of seats in Parliament held by women, while on the ratio of female-earned income to male-earned income, it is ranked 126.

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