State-level estimates of the Human Capital Index for India

Abstract

Despite making improvements in economic growth and poverty reduction in India there is little evidence of improvement in education and health indicators of human capital. We use data from various sources to construct a novel state-level measure of the Human Capital Index to highlight the shortfall in terms of human capital at sub-national levels in India. The results indicate that there is a large gap among the states Our measure of HCI for India is consistent with the country-level measure in that we find similar correlations between HCI and other indicators of economic growth. We conclude with implications for policy in a country like India, where health policy is the mandate of state governments.