Gender-based Indicators in Human Development - Correcting for ‘Missing Women’

Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Measure are two gender-based indicators provided by the United Nations Development Program. Population share of the genders enter the formulation of these indicators in such a way that it favours the better performing gender. This can lead to further additions to missing women. A correction is proposed to capture this anomaly. This alternative satisfies an axiom of Monotonicity with its two corollaries, that is, given attainments the measure maximizes at ideal sex ratio and vanishes when one of the genders becomes extinct. An empirical illustration by taking life expectancy data of countries is given.Ideality, Extinction, index, Inequality, Sex-ratio

On a Class of human development index measures

Using Minkowski distance function we propose a class of Human Development Index measures. Special cases of this turn out to be the popularly used linear average method as also a newly proposed displaced ideal method. Two measures of penalty are suggested. One captures the non-uniform attainment across dimensions and the other captures the deviation from the ideal path. A method of adjusting for unequal weights is also provided.Ideal path, Penalty, Minkowski distance function, Multiple dimensions, Uniform development

Urban transport sustainability indicators: Application of Multi-View Black-Box (MVBB) framework

In a recent work Nathan and Reddy (2011a) have proposed a Multi-view Black-box (MVBB) framework for development of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for an urban setup. The framework is flexible to be applied to any domain or sector of urban system. In this paper the proposed MVBB framework is applied for transportation sector of Mumbai city. The paper begins with a discussion on transportation sector and its unsustainability links and trends. It outlines the concept of sustainable transportation system and reviews some of the prominent sustainable transportation indicator initiatives. In order to formalize sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for transportation sector, the study collates the indicators from literature, placed them in Mumbai's context and classified them into the three dimensions of urban sustainability-economic efficiency, social wellbeing and ecological acceptability.Sustainable transportation system, Potential indicators, Urban sustainability, MVBB, Transport indicators, Economic efficiency, Social wellbeing, Ecological acceptability

A conceptual framework for development of sustainable development indicators

There was a boom in the development of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) after notion of sustainability became popular through Bruntland Commission's report. Since then numerous efforts have been made worldwide in constructing SDIs at global, national and local scales, but in India not a single city has registered any initiative for indicator development . Motivated by this dearth of studies added to the prevailing sustainability risks in million plus cities in India, a research is being undertaken at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development and Research (IGIDR), Mumbai, India, to develop a set of sustainable indicators to study the resource dynamics of the city of Mumbai. As a first step in the process, the ground for development of SDIs is prepared through the development of a framework. A multi-view black box (MVBB) framework has been constructed by eliminating the system component from the extended urban metabolism model (EUMM) and introducing three-dimensional views of economic efficiency (EE), social wellbeing (SW), and ecological acceptability (EA). Domain-based classification was adopted to facilitate a scientifically credible set of indicators. The important domain areas are identified and applying MVBB framework, a model has been developed for each domain.Urban metabolism, Resources transformation, Economic efficiency, Society, Ecology, Monitoring and evaluation, City development, Black box, Productization of process

ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A HIGH HUMANE AND LOW CARBON FUTURE

Presently India is facing the twin challenge of energy universalization as well as emission reduction. Nearly 0.4 billion people in India mostly residing in rural areas do not have access to electricity and more than 0.8 billion people do not use modern cooking fuels. Provision of energy services however needs to take into account the global temperatures rise, which if to be limited to 2C more from its pre-industrial value, Green House Gas (GHG) emissions must be halved by 2050 from its 1990 level. Energy infrastructure plays a key role to meet this dual challenge of universalization of energy services and reduction of energy-induced emissions. Assessing Indias infrastructure, this study presents the high humane (Energy universalization) and low carbon scenarios and discusses investment needs, financing mechanisms and the key policy issues.Energy climate nexus, Energy universalization, Infrastructure Investments, Financing mechanisms, Energy efficiency.

On A Class of Human Development Index Measures

Using Minkowski distance function we propose a class of Human Development Index measures. Special cases of this turn out to be the popularly used linear average method as also a newly proposed displaced ideal method. Two measures of penalty are suggested. One captures the non-uniform attainment across dimensions and the other captures the deviation from the ideal path. A method of adjusting for unequal weights is also provided.Ideal path, Penalty, Minkowski distance function, Multiple dimensions, Uniform development

On measuring group differential: Some further results

We impose a value judgment that a decrease in failure should be accompanied by a decrease in gap (difference or ratio) between sub-groups. In other words, the same gap at lower levels of failure is to be considered worse off. This, in line with transfer sensitivity axiom of poverty indices, is formalized by Mishra and Subramanian (2006) through two level-sensitive axioms in group differential measures. In addition, Mishra (2007) imposes an axiom of normalization. At a basic level it means that the group differential measure lies between zero and unity. However, at a fundamental level it should also mean that zero indicates no differential between the two sub-groups whereas unity indicates maximum differential between the two sub-groups. A group differential measure discussed in the above-mentioned two papers satisfied the level-sensitivity axioms but failed the normalization axiom at a fundamental level. Further, the comparison between two situations under this measure also happened to be dependent on the choice of some parameters. Both these problems are done away with in the measure proposed in this paper. Empirical illustration with infant mortality rate data for selected Indian states has also been given.Indicator of failure, Level sensitivity (difference-based and ratio-based), Normalization

Progress in Human Development - Are we on the right path?

The conventional measure of Human Development Index (HDI) is a linear average across dimensions, HDI1. Under this, poor attainments in any dimension gets perfectly compensated for better attainments in any other dimension HDI2, which is based on Euclidean distance measuring shortfall from the ideal, addresses the above anomaly. In our analysis of progress, we use HDI2 to develop the notion of an ideal path and penalty to capture deviation from this; and a measure of fluctuation. The measures are applied to 127 countries for the period 1990-2004. The results show that Sub-Saharan countries have suffered on account of sharp decline in health suggesting prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic. In case of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the income dimension got jolted in the nineties indicating their economic collapse after Soviet disintegration. We also find some of the emerging economies progressing well along the ideal path. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of Human Development Report, this paper is timely and would engage academia and public policy to have a critical look favouring a balanced development across the three dimensions of HDI - health, education and standard of living.Human Development Index (HDI), Ideal path, Measure of fluctuation, Measure of normalized-change, Sub-Saharan, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Progress in human development: Are we on the right path?

The conventional measure of Human Development Index (HDI) is a linear average across dimensions, HDI1. Under this, poor attainments in any dimension gets perfectly compensated for better attainments in any other dimension HDI2, which is based on Euclidean distance measuring shortfall from the ideal, addresses the above anomaly. In our analysis of progress, we use HDI2 to develop the notion of an ideal path and penalty to capture deviation from this; and a measure of fluctuation. The measures are applied to 127 countries for the period 1990-2004. The results show that Sub-Saharan countries have suffered on account of sharp decline in health suggesting prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic. In case of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the income dimension got jolted in the nineties indicating their economic collapse after Soviet disintegration. We also find some of the emerging economies progressing well along the ideal path. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of Human Development Report, this paper is timely and would engage academia and public policy to have a critical look favouring a balanced development across the three dimensions of HDI - health, education and standard of living.Human Development Index (HDI), Ideal path, Measure of fluctuation, Measure of normalized-change, Sub-Saharan, Commonwealth Independent States (CIS)

On Measuring Group Differential - Some Further Results

We impose a value judgment that a decrease in failure should be accompanied by a decrease in gap (difference or ratio) between sub-groups. In other words, the same gap at lower levels of failure is to be considered worse off. This, in line with transfer sensitivity axiom of poverty indices, is formalized by Mishra and Subramanian (2006) through two level-sensitive axioms in group differential measures. In addition, Mishra (2007) imposes an axiom of normalization. At a basic level it means that the group differential measure lies between zero and unity. However, at a fundamental level it should also mean that zero indicates no differential between the two sub-groups whereas unity indicates maximum differential between the two sub-groups. A group differential measure discussed in the above-mentioned two papers satisfied the level-sensitivity axioms but failed the normalization axiom at a fundamental level. Further, the comparison between two situations under this measure also happened to be dependent on the choice of some parameters. Both these problems are done away with in the measure proposed in this paper. Empirical illustration with infant mortality rate data for selected Indian states has also been given.indicator of failure, Level sensitivity (difference-based and ratio-based)