Abstract
As is well known, three measures of the quality of human life and human capabilities-life expectancy, literacy and income, comprise the building blocks of the Human Development Index (HDI). HDI and related statistics are presented here for Indian States. Almost all the States of India showed a monotonie increase in per capita income, literacy and HDI over time, from 1970 to 1998, though the same could not be said of life expectancy. While States with a higher per capita income did not necessarily exhibit higher HDI values, in general, economic development over time was accompanied by an improvement in the HDI. Significantly, inter State disparities in the HDI were found to decrease over time. Per capita income disparities increased, and literacy disparities narrowed down.
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