DEVELOPMENT
What Development Promises - Different People, Different Goals : Development promises real growth by enhancing total income and standard of living of a person. Different people have different development goals. What may be developed for one may not be developed for the other. It may even be destructive for the other. The development goals are varying from people to people.
Income and Goals : What people desire is regular work, better wages and decent price for their crops or other products that they produce. In other words, they want more income. People also seek things like equal treatment, freedom, security, and respect for others. In some cases, these may be more important than more income or more consumption because material goods are not all that you need to live. Money, or material things that one can buy with it, is one of the factors on which our life depends on non-material things mentioned above. Similarly, for development people look at a mix of goals. The developmental goals that people have are not only about better income but also about other important things in life.
National Development : It is very important to keep in mind that different persons could have different as well as conflicting notions of a country’s development. National development refers to the ability of a nation to improve the standard of living of its citizens. Standards of living of citizens depend upon per capita income, Gross Domestic Product, literacy rate and availability of health etc. These factors are considered as measures of improvement.
How to Compare Different countries or States : Since countries have different populations comparing total income does not tell us what an average person is likely to earn, hence we compare the average income which is the total income of the country divided by its total population. It is also called per capita income.
In the World Development Report by the World Bank, The Countries with per capita income of USD 12276 per annum and above in 2010, are called rich countries and those with per capita income of USD 1005 or less are called low-income countries. India comes in the category of low middle-income countries because its per capita income in 2010 was just US$1340 per annum. The rich countries excluding countries of the Middle East and certain other small countries, are generally called developed countries.
Income and Criteria : For development of a nation average income or per capita income is needed. Per capita income of selected States like Punjab, Kerala and Bihar. If per capita income were to be used as the measure of development, Punjab would be considered as the most developed and Bihar the least developed state of the three. However, this is not true, if we look at the other criteria like literacy, infant mortality rate etc.
Public Facilities : Facilities which are provided by the government are considered as public facilities like schools, hospitals, community halls, transport, electricity etc. As we have seen that Punjab has more income than the average person in Kerala but Kerala has a better infant Mortality Rate because of better public systems like, Public Distribution System which provide Health and nutritional status to the state. We need public facilities because we cannot buy everything like the pollution-free environment, medicines and Money may also not be able to protect you from infectious disease unless the whole of your community takes preventive steps.
Human Development Index - It is a composite Index prepared by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through its Annual Human Development Report published every year. Major parameters such as longevity of life, levels of literacy and Per capita income are used to measure the development of countries. World countries are ranked accordingly into Very High Developed countries, High Developed countries, Medium Developed countries and Low Developed countries
Sustainability of Development : It means development without hampering the Environment. It is the process of development that satisfies the present needs without compromising the needs of the future generation. Scientists have been warning that the present type and levels of development are not sustainable. Some of the examples are: Overuse of groundwater , Exhaustion of natural resources etc.
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