Augusta University Professor Presents findings on UN’s Human Development Index Research to International Audience
Monday, June 12th, 2023
In 2022, Arni S.R. Srinivasa Rao, PhD, published a research paper outlining his thoughts on why the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) should consider expanding the Human Development Index (HDI) to include history prior to 1990.
On June 9, Rao followed up on that article when he delivered a presentation hosted by the Department of Education in Science and Mathematics within the National Council of Educational Research and Training of India. The presentation, “United Nation’s Annual Country-Wise Human Development Index,” was part of the group’s National Student Outreach Program and the Pravasi Bharatiya Academic and Scientific Sampark’s series “Integrating Indian Diaspora with the Motherland.”
The presentation was made available via national television channels in India, as well as YouTube and Facebook live streams.
“This talk was about the basics of the Human Development Index by the UN, the computation of the index and presenting a serious criticism of the index for its practical utility without it being adjusted for the loot of wealth during the colonial era in several countries,” said Rao, a professor and director at the Laboratory for Theory and Mathematical Modeling in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
“The talk discussed economic and business structure in all the regions of the world for the past 2,000 years and demonstrates, with published pieces of evidence, how the GDP was high in countries like India before the British occupation started around 1700. India almost shared around 24 to 32% of the global GDP from the 1st century CE to 1700 CE which was the highest in the world. The global GDP share of India went down to 4.2% by the time the British left ruling India in 1947.”
Rao began his presentation by showing the audience HDI values published by the UN for a selected list of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan and others. The values were shown for 1990, when the HDI was launched, 2000, 2010 and 2021.
