Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, defined a developed country as follows: "A developed country is one that allows all its citizens to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe environment." There are no specific scales or ways to distinguish a developed country. Some criterias used are income per capita,GDP,Industrialization and Human Development Index. The development of a country is measured with statistical indexes such as income per capita (per person) (GDP), life expectancy, the rate of literacy. The UN has developed the HDI, a compound indicator of the above statistics, to gauge the level of human development for countries where data is available. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide.Japan in Asia, Canada and the United States in North America, Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, and most European countries are considered "developed" regions or areas.
Some Statistical Figures:
HDI of some developed countries are,
1) USA - 0.902
2) Australia - 0.937
3) Germany - 0.885
4) Japan - 0.884
HDI pf some developing countries are,
1) Brazil - 0.699
2) Russia - 0.719
3) China - 0.663
4) India - 0.519(0.814 in Kerala)
GDP in millions of USD of some contries are,
1) United States - 14,624,184
2) People's Republic of China - 5,745,133
3) Japan - 5,390,897
4) Germany - 3,305,898
5) India - 1,430,020
gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita(the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year divided by the average (or mid-year) population for the same year) in US dollars of some countries are,
United States - 47,123
Australia - 39,692
Canada - 39,033
Germany - 35,930
Japan - 33,828
China - 7,518
India - 3,290
When we analyse the statistical figures it is clear that India is a developing country. We need to achieve more GDP,HDI and per capita income to become a developed country. But the economic growth alone will not help a country to become developed. When the growth will give all citizens more econonomic freedom, better health and safety then a country will become fully developed. For better growth, India needs to utilize all its resources and distribute the income equally to its citizens. It should invest more money in healthcare to make sure that all citizens are getting better or the best medical treatments. It should concentrate more on infrastructure development to improve the growth rate. Government needs to give more importance to human resource developments because more than 50% of Indian population are young. India can become a developed country in coming years by keeping a growth rate more than 8% and better management and distribution of money and opportunities to all citizens.
