New Delhi, Dec 10 (UNI) United Nations Development Programme asserts Asia-Pacific region, which has witnessed the steepest rise globally in human development, leads the world in access to broadband internet but continues to grapple with widespread multidimensional poverty, especially in India and the rest of South Asia, and may be vulnerable to a new set of inequalities emerging around higher education and climate resilience.
India ranks 129 out of 189 countries on the 2019 Human Development Index, marking incremental improvement from the previous year’s ranking (130 of 189). This steady progress caps nearly three decades of rapid development, which have seen a dramatic reduction in absolute poverty, along with gains in life expectancy, education, and access to health care.

According to a statement here, these are among the key findings of the 2019 Human Development Report, released on Monday by the UNDP titled 'Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century.'

Human Development Report, which pioneers a more rounded way to measure countries’ progress beyond just economic growth, says that as the gap in basic standards is narrowing, with an unprecedented number of people escaping poverty, hunger and disease, the necessities to thrive have evolved. The next generation of inequalities is opening up, particularly around technology, education, and the climate crisis.

'This is the new face of inequality,' says UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. 'And as this Human Development Report sets out, inequality is not beyond solutions. Inequality is about the unequal distribution of wealth and power: the entrenched social and political norms that are bringing people onto the streets today, and the triggers that will do so in the future unless something changes. Recognising the real face of inequality is a first step; what happens next is a choice that each leader must make.'

The report analyses inequality in three steps: beyond income, beyond averages, and beyond today, proposing a battery of policy options to tackle it.
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