UPPSC 2022 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 29 of 150

Correct — D, 3, 4, 1, 2. That is, Hong Kong, then Australia, then Japan, then Russia. Hong Kong stands highest of the four listed here on the Human Development Index, carried by one of the world's highest life expectancies together with a high gross national income per head; Australia is immediately behind it, its score built on exceptionally strong schooling indicators; Japan is comfortably inside the very-high group but below both, its extraordinary longevity offset by lower scores on the income and expected-schooling components; and Russia is clearly the lowest of the four, with markedly lower life expectancy and per-capita income than the other three. Two honest cautions belong with this card. First, learn the ORDER, not rank numbers: the exact positions of these four move between editions and are not worth memorising. Second, the premise is shaky — the report that could be called 'HDI 2022', the Human Development Report 2021-22, was released on 8 September 2022, nearly three months AFTER this exam was held on 12 June 2022. The most recent report actually available to a candidate on exam day was the Human Development Report 2020. The key still marks (d), and the descending order it asks for is the one given above.

• (a)1, 2, 4, 3 — Inverted at both ends. It opens with Japan and closes with Hong Kong, when Hong Kong is the highest of the four and Japan the third. Its clearest error is placing Russia second: Russia is the lowest of these four on every HDI component that matters — life expectancy, schooling and income per head.
• (b)4, 1, 3, 2 — The near miss, and the one worth studying. It gets the tail right — Russia last — but pushes Hong Kong down to third behind Australia and Japan. Hong Kong ranks above both. A candidate who remembers only that Russia trails the other three will find this option and (d) equally attractive, and the top of the order is what separates them.
• (c)2, 3, 1, 4 — It puts Russia first, which is the plainest error available in this question, and Australia last. Both are the reverse of the truth: Australia is second of the four and Russia fourth.

The Human Development Index is a composite of three dimensions, each measured by an indicator and combined as a geometric mean: a long and healthy life, measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge, measured by mean years of schooling of adults and expected years of schooling of children; and a decent standard of living, measured by gross national income per capita in purchasing-power terms. Because it is a geometric mean, a country cannot compensate for weakness in one dimension by excelling in another — which is why a rich country with poor longevity, or a long-lived country with modest income, lands lower than raw GDP rankings would suggest. The UNDP has published the index since the first Human Development Report in 1990.

Ordering questions like this are answered by anchoring, not by recall of four separate ranks. Fix the extremes first: among these four, Russia is unambiguously the lowest and Hong Kong the highest, which alone eliminates (a) and (c). The remaining decision is between Hong Kong and Australia at the top, and Hong Kong takes it. The trap in the option set is (b), which pays off partial knowledge — it rewards knowing Russia is last while quietly getting the leader wrong. Note also the report-timing defect: a question dated 'HDI 2022' at a June-2022 exam was asking about a report not yet published, so the safest preparation is the relative standing of major economies rather than a year-stamped table.

• The descending order the official key marks: Hong Kong, then Australia, then Japan, then Russia
• HDI dimensions: life expectancy at birth; mean and expected years of schooling; gross national income per capita (PPP) — combined as a geometric mean
• The Human Development Report 2021-22 was released on 8 September 2022, after this exam was held on 12 June 2022
• The report available to candidates on exam day was the Human Development Report 2020, released 15 December 2020
• The UNDP has published the Human Development Report, and the HDI with it, since 1990

• Memorising rank numbers instead of relative order; ranks shift between editions and questions like this only need the sequence
• Assuming HDI tracks GDP — Japan and Russia both illustrate the gap between income rank and human development rank
• Taking the year in the question at face value: the report labelled 2021-22 appeared in September 2022, months after this exam

UPPSC asks the HDI in three shapes — arrange countries in order, which indicator is NOT used, and a statement pair about the latest report. UPSC asks the concept and the history: which report introduced which index, what the components are, and how the HDI differs from income measures. Preparing the components and the relative standing of major economies covers both.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following is NOT one of the indicators used in computing the Human Development Index?

  • (a)Life expectancy at birth
  • (b)Expected years of schooling
  • (c)Gross national income per capita
  • (d)Infant mortality rate

  Answer(d) Infant mortality rate — the HDI uses life expectancy at birth for health, mean and expected years of schooling for knowledge, and GNI per capita for standard of living.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Human Development Index is published annually by which organisation?

  • (a)World Bank
  • (b)United Nations Development Programme
  • (c)International Monetary Fund
  • (d)World Economic Forum

  Answer(b) United Nations Development Programme — the UNDP has published the Human Development Report, and the HDI within it, since 1990.