In the development race - The intangible counts

everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. — Albert Einstein

We like counting. And as a country when we are striving towards ‘development’, I begin to ponder what really is ‘development’? Many indices rank countries based on their performance on various ‘indicators’ of Development. Have they been able to measure ‘everything that counts’? In most cases, what it is the tangible that is measured since it is easiest to count, but it is the intangible, which might matter the most.

The first scale used to measure development was Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or a countries income. In 1990, there was a change in this perspective of looking at development through crude economic lens alone . This is was the first step in measuring development with a focus on the country’s people centric policies was taken by Mahbub Ul Haq who created the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI, used by UNDP to measure development, looks at three things– Health, indicated by the life expectancy at birth; Education, indicated by mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling; and Living standards, measured by Gross National Income per capita. The life expectancy at birth accounts for the number of years a person would live but not the quality of that life. Mortality rates surely indicate our susceptibility to death but how do we measure how well we live?

The intangible matters not only when we are talking about quality of life but even while calculating our GDP. Only 36% of the world’s GDP is from the tangible industry of manufacturing and agriculture, while 64 % lies in the service industry. They never get included!

Way back in 1968, American politician, Robert Kennedy, was disturbed by our tendency to measure only the tangible, “The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile”.


The Gupta Period in India is known as the Golden Age of India as there was growth in all fields including art, literature, astronomy . Yet, the current Multidimensional Poverty Index developed by Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative and the UNDP only checks on the lack of foods, education (defining it as years of schooling), health and infrastructure. What about lack of choice? Lack of knowledge? Is poor quality education not sign poverty?

The intabgible is lost in the crowd of 298 indicators in the World Development Indicatorsof developed the World Bank. . Of the 87 indicators used to measure education, none look at the quality of education - none ask if the children are happy going to school. The 29 social development indicators does look at gender equality but measures it in terms of education and health, and overlooks issues of discrimination and insecurity. The Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) of the UNDP also keeps silent on these issues. . The recent study published by Thomson Reuters foundation, indicates India is 4th most dangerous country for women. The indicators used were health, discrimination, sexual violence, non sexual violence, cultural facts and trafficking rate. How can living in fear lead towards development?

Recently, efforts are made to capture the usually intangible qualitative aspects of life, albeit calling them the governance indicators. For example, the World Governance Indicators prepared by the World Bank uses six qualitative dimensions to measure development - . uses these Voice and Accountability; Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism; Government Effectiveness; Regulatory Quality; Rule of Law; Control of Corruption.

Sitting in lap of the Himalayas, Bhutan’s former King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, wanted to create an enabling environment for his people to be happy. And for him, that is the only measure of good governance and development. He was the first one to envisage a Happiness Index. Today, more and more world’s leaders are trying to measure the Gross National Happiness.

A truly developed nation is marked more by the intangible indicators --- development is freedom, free thinking, the space where the mind can grow without fear, in a community where the spirit of democracy does not get replaced by majoritarianism; a country where people are happy. True development looks at sustainability of environment, as well as cultures.. How do we measure a community that has respect for diversity, compassion, and creates and environment of well being? When a tolerant society can be one of the essential factors for ‘well being’, we need to think how to capture and ‘measure’ that with our indicators.