Human development is about people, about expanding their choices to lead lives they value. Fundamental to enlarging human choices is building human capabilities: the range of things people can do or be.
Scandinavian countries usually do not contribute much to the daily news, thus, the level of awareness about these countries goes minimal in the Asian countries like India. It was while reading a report from United Nations Development Program (UNDP), I realized that Norway is actually the country, which enjoys the highest living standards in the world.
This perception many times wrongly goes for the countries like US & UK since the IT Services phenomena has taken place. Surprisingly these countries don't figure out in even top 5 entries but scale quite further down.
The study reveals the ranking based largely on following parameters: 1. Average levels of education 2. Income levels 3. Expected length of lifetime This report measured standards of living in over 177 countries around the world.
One of the surprising findings however is the life expectancy rate in Norway. It goes to 78 years, yes the men and women on an average live 78 damn odd years. This also means that the age of 90 & 100 is also common.
Norwegians themselves point very high to their country for the scenic beauty, recreational opportunities, clean water & fresh air. Besides I found out quite a blossoming cultural diversity, the public policies are aimed at integrating various ethnic groups, accepting different communities and promoting tolerance.
People might debate these sayings in particular cases though, however, overall this country scores much high on several parameters around the world. Only exception is the costliness of the country, compared to Asian countries, this makes anyone go crazy.
Here is a snapshot of the rankings from UNDP.
1 comment:
Ok, I stumbled upon your blog.
Haven't read much except for the profile.
Me thinks YASE means Yet Another Software Engineer.
Now, where are the 5 Euros you promised? :-)
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