UNDP Human Development Reports

The UNDP Human Development Reports provide the Human Development Index and its components — life expectancy, education (mean and expected years of schooling), and GNI per capita — for every country from 1990 onwards. Beyond the headline HDI, the data portal includes the Inequality-adjusted HDI, Gender Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, and Multidimensional Poverty Index. For India researchers, the key value is the long time series: you can track India’s HDI trajectory against peers (Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Brazil) over three decades, or examine subnational HDI estimates published for Indian states. The data is freely downloadable and well-documented, making it a standard reference for any discussion of India’s development progress.