A comparative Study of Human Development Index and its Various Components for BRICS Countries

Abstract

Economic growth and economic development terms were considered interchangeably. There were no separate studies in development economics. Income used to be single yardstick for determining economic development of nations till 1991.Gradually after 1991 some welfare economist started a shift in paradigm. They emphasized the importance of social and other factors in the field of economic development. Prof. Amartya Sen and late Dr. Mahebub-ul-Haq transformed the concept of human development in 1991.  They contributed in Human Developed Report published in 1991. After that Human Development Index has gained the recognition in the area of economic development.

There are countries such as China, Hongkong, Japan, Korea etc. have joined the link between economic developments as well as human development and strengthened it. Both economic and non-economic factors are equally important in measuring economic development. There are number of non-economic indicators to measure human development i.e. Human Development Index (HDI), Gender Development Index (GDI), Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MDPI), Human Consumption Index (HCI), Human Rights Index (HRI) and Technology Achievement Index (TAI) etc. these indicators are focused on increasing human capabilities and opportunities for better economic quality.

The present paper deals with human development and its various issues in BRICS Countries. Researcher has divided this paper into three sections. In the first section Researcher has explained the research method parts. In the second section, status of human development index has been analyzed as per the latest methodology for BRICS countries. And in last section main conclusion and suggestions have been discussed.

According to HDR 2015, Three BRIC countries (Brazil, China, and the Russian Federation) are placed in high human development category and two countries India and South Africa) have been placed in medium development category. The present study is intended to find out the reasons for the differences in the level of human development among the five large economies of the world.