The UNDP’s Human Development Report, released globally on October 5, 2009, puts India at 134 out of a survey of 182 countries. The report is based on data collected in the year 2007.

Published annually since 1990, the human development index (HDI) goes beyond a nation's gross domestic product (GDP) and includes the general well-being of people under several parameters such as standard of living, literacy, health and gender-related issues.

India’s ranking has slipped a few points since the previous index, published for 2007 and 2008 together, which was 128; the year before it was ranked 126.

China, Sri Lanka and Bhutan rank higher than India at 92, 102 and 132, respectively, while Pakistan at 141, Nepal at 144 and Bangladesh at 146 rank lower.

Norway continues to top the chart, while Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan make up the top 10. The US is ranked 13, while Britain and Germany are further down at 21 and 22.

However, according to the report, overall there is marginal improvement in India’s HDI. Its value is 0.612 in 2007, a 1.36% increase from 0.556 in 2000.The index is measured taking into account various parameters such as poverty levels, literacy and gender-related issues to determine the quality of life.

The report measures India on the human poverty index (HPI) and finds that it ranks 88th among 135 countries. HPI measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive to the age of 40. About 75% of India's population lives on roughly Rs 90 a day.

India’s gender-related development index (GDI) that indicates the inequalities in achievement between women and men is at 0.594, and should be compared to its HDI value of 0.612, says the report. India’s GDI value is 97.1 per cent of its HDI value, though out of the 155 countries with both HDI and GDI values, 138 countries have “a better ratio than India’s”

Eleven per cent of Indians have no access to an improved water source, and 46% of children below five years of age are underweight.

This year, the report focuses specifically on migration. In ‘Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development’ it urges governments to reduce barriers to people’s movement and suggests a series of policies, such as reducing the cost of passports and other immigration papers to improve people's access to a better quality of life.

“The poorest and the low skilled could benefit the most by moving, yet they face the largest barriers to movement: legal, financial, social,” the report says. Nearly one billion of the world's estimated 6.7-billion population are migrants with women making up for almost half of that.

The report highlights that migration from developing countries to developed countries is still much lower than migration from one developing economy to another. India has an emigration rate of 0.8% and its major continent of destination for migrants is Asia with 72% of emigrants living there. The vast majority went to the Untied Arab Emirates, which has a very high HDI; 15% went to northern America, and 9.7% to Europe.

Internal migration is also very high. Forty-two million Indians have migrated from one state to another while 300 million have migrated from the city of their birth.

The report says that while migration must not become a substitute for development, over the years migration has shown that the origin countries benefit immensely from remittances. Destination countries too benefit from migrants as they significantly boost economic outputs.