Niti Aayog CEO says unequal growth holding India back. Here's what he means

India currently ranks 131 out of 188 countries on the HDI, lowest amongst BRICS nations in the most recent 2016 rankings

Infant mortality rates in Goa and Kerala are similar to the European and Central Asia average, while Madhya Pradesh and Odisha mirror rates found in Afghanistan and Haiti, countries with significantly lower GDP ($20.8 billion and $8.4 billion, respectively) than India ($2,597.4 billion).

Such human development disparities led Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, the government think tank, to call for an improvement in living standards to raise India’s Human Development Index (HDI) ranking, which has fallen three ranks over 10 years.

While some parts of the country are improving,