The year 2024 marks the beginning of many conflicts, which will have implications for the global community. Citizens of different countries face challenges such as poverty, hunger and climate change, all of which play an important role in determining their quality of life. As the world year comes to an end with several important events on the horizon and anticipation building for 2025, we examine India’s performance on various global indicators announced in 2024. From poverty assessments to measures of happiness, here’s how India ranks.
Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
According to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2024, about 1.1 billion people out of a total of 6.3 billion are facing poverty in 112 countries. A report published by the United Nations Development Program showed that the poverty rate in India has come down from 55.1 percent in 2005-06 to 16.4 percent in 2019-21. Despite this, the five countries with the highest population living in poverty are India (234 million), medium Human Development Index (HDI), and Pakistan (93 million), Ethiopia (86 million), Nigeria (74 million). and the Democratic Republic of Congo (66 million), all of which have a low HDI. Collectively, these five countries represent almost half (48.1 percent) of the total of 1.1 billion poor people.
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More than half of the 1.1 billion people living in poverty are children under 18, a total of 584 million. Globally, 27.9 percent of children live in poverty, as opposed to 13.5 percent of adults.
Global Hunger Index
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) serves as the main tool used by international humanitarian organizations to measure and monitor levels of hunger, with scores derived from indicators of malnutrition and child mortality in 127 countries. In the latest rankings, India is ranked 105th in the “severe” category of analysis. This puts India among the 42 countries identified as “severe”, along with Pakistan and Afghanistan, while neighboring South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have achieved good GHI scores, giving them a “moderate” rating. Eligibility for the category.
According to the 2024 Global Hunger Index, India has a score of 27.3, indicating severe levels of hunger. The GHI score for India is derived from four key indicators: 13.7 percent of the population is malnourished, 35.5 percent of children under five are stunted, 18.7 percent of these children are wasted, and 2.9 percent of children do not live to see their fifth birthday, as noted in the report.
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World Press Freedom Index
India’s score on the World Press Freedom Index fell to 31.28 from 36.62 last year, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF for Reporters sans Frontières), which compiles an annual index that assesses the freedom of journalists in 180 jurisdictions. Although India’s ranking rose from 161st in 2023 to 159th in 2024, this change was mainly due to the decline of other countries in the rankings. Norway and Denmark secured the top spots in the RSF index, while Eritrea occupied the lowest spot, with Syria just above it.
An RSF country report on India noted that “India’s media has been in an ‘unofficial state of emergency’ since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014 and engineered a spectacular rapprochement between his party, the BJP, and the big families that dominate the media.”
Global Gender Gap Index
India has dropped two places in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index, now at 129th, while Iceland remains at the top. In South Asia, India ranks fifth, after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while Pakistan ranks last. At the global level, Sudan ranks last out of 146 countries assessed, while Pakistan falls three places to 145th.
India exhibited the strongest gender parity in secondary education enrollment and achieved a commendable 65th position in women’s political empowerment. India ranks 10th in terms of duration of female and male leadership over the past 50 years.
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According to the WEF, the global gender gap has decreased by 68.5 percent, but it will take another 134 years, or five generations, to achieve full gender equality at the current rate. The gender gap has narrowed by 0.1 percentage points over the past year.
World Happiness Index
Indians are among the world’s unhappiest people, as indicated by the annual World Happiness Report, which assesses global life satisfaction based on factors such as health, economy and freedom. In the latest report, India ranks 126 out of 143 countries, a slight drop from last year’s 125th position. This puts India behind conflict-affected areas like Palestine and Ukraine, as well as neighboring countries like Pakistan and Nepal.
The report is the result of a collaboration between Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Oxford Wellbeing Research Center. Notably, the findings show that older people in India report higher levels of life satisfaction.
Human Development Index
India’s Human Development Index (HDI) value, which declined in 2021 and remained stable in subsequent years, increased to 0.644 in 2022. This improvement, as reported in the recently published 2023/24, ranks India 134 out of 193 countries and regions. Human Development Report (HDR) titled “Breaking the Gridlock: Reimagining Cooperation in a Polarized World.” The current HDR is based on the findings of the 2021-2022 report, which marks the first decline in global HDI values ​​for two consecutive years.
With an HDI value of 0.644, India is placed in the medium human development category. From 1990 to 2022, the country achieved a remarkable 48.4 percent increase in its HDI value, rising from 0.434 in 1990 to 0.644 in 2022.
Climate Change Performance Index
India is ranked 10th out of a list of over 60 countries assessed for their initiatives to combat climate change, though it has dropped two places from last year. This ranking is due to India’s low per capita emissions and its rapid progress in renewable energy deployment. The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI 2025) report, unveiled during the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, has not determined the top three positions, with Denmark in fourth place and the Netherlands behind.
Created by think tanks including Germanwatch, the New Climate Institute, and Climate Action Network International, the CCPI monitors the performance of the world’s major emitters on emissions, renewable energy, and climate policies. CCPI’s experts noted that India has made significant progress in renewable energy policy over the past year, particularly through the launch of large-scale solar power projects and the Rooftop Solar Scheme. Among the G20 nations, India and the United Kingdom are recognized as the only high performers in the CCPI.
Global Peace Index
The report showed India’s overall level of peace increased by 1.6 percent over last year, the highest level of peace since the index’s inception. According to the Global Peace Index (GPI) 2024, India is ranked 116th globally, with an overall score of 2.319. This represents a significant improvement from 126th in 2023, 139th in 2020 and 141st in 2019.
published – December 24, 2024 at 10:31 am IST