[Current Affairs] Social Progress Index -2 014

Current Affairs

Social Progress Index

Social Progress Index

·        Measures the countries that provide the social and environmental needs of their citizens rather than the economic figures

·        Based on the writings of Amartya Sen, Douglass North and Jospeh Stilgitz

·        Economic development is necessary but not sufficient for social progress. A country’s overall level of development masks social and environmental strengths and challenges. At a disaggregated level, the social progress index shows areas of underperformance and success for countries at all income levels

·        Recall in India, Gujarat may lead in Economic growth but it is one of poor in Social Index rankings. Kerala and Tamil Nadu may not be top in economic growth but these two are socially improved states in India than any other (even Amartya Sen said that, the social growth in Kerala and Tamil Nadu is the most interesting story and it is comparable to European countries) [Recall the ‘bitter’ Lok Sabha election campaign b/w Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi in Tamil Nadu; Newspaper quoted the title as “Is it Amma Model or NaMo model? Which will win in TN?” – Answer is: 2/39 – For NaMo+ and 37/39 for Amma (without any alliance)]

·        SPI – not just economic growth makes that nation most developed or socially developed.

 ·        3 dimensions for this index

(i) Basic Human Needs

(ii) Foundations of Wellbeing

(iii) Opportunity

·        132 countries surveyed

·        The top 3 countries in the Social Progress Index are: New Zealand, Switzerland and Iceland (in 2014 HDI rankings – the top three are: Norway, Australia and Switzerland)

·        Bottom three are (132 - Chad; 131 – Central African Republic and 130 - Burundi)

·        India’s rank is at 102 (and as usual like in other major index, in this also India ranks last among BRICS nations)

Top ten countries in SPI – 2014:

(i) New Zealand

(ii) Switzerland

(iii) Iceland

(iv) The Netherlands

(v) Norway

(vi) Sweden

(vii) Canada

(viii) Finland

(ix) Denmark

(x) Australia

-è No Asian countries in top 10

Germany @ 12; UK @ 13; USA @ 16 and France @ 20

BRICS countries in SPI – 2014:

Brazil – 46

South Africa – 69

Russia – 80

China – 90

India – 102

India and her neighbours in SPI – 2014:

Sri Lanka – 85

Bangladesh – 99

Nepal – 101

India – 102

Pakistan – 124

(Bhutan not counted for ranking)

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