A Worthy Attempt

South India: Human Development Report

NCAER

OUP

Rs 475/442 pages

The study of human development is one of those worthy activities, where substance is often buried under a wealth of acronyms. There are HD Indices, Gender DI, and HD profiles. All these are used to disaggregate traditional measures like GDP into more detailed break-ups of actual access to income and assets, knowledge acquisition and health factors for different groups of people.

The HDI is of course, the creation of the UNDP, yet another worthy acronym. Every year, the UNDP produces its global DPR, to the delight of every jholawallah.

In India, disaggregation is all the more necessary because huge disparities exist across regions and cultures. Apart from the sociological relevance of such data for development agencies, marketeers would kill for access to such data presented in a meaningful manner so as to allow them to target relevant groups.

In fact, the whole hullabaloo about