�With the introduction of a ?human development? approach, the concept of development is no longer limited to the quantification of growing incomes or outputs in terms of GNP or GDP but has been widened by the inclusion of humane dimensions of development such as poverty alleviation, distribution of resources and freedom of choice. Despite its limitations, evolution of the human development approach has a profound impact on the philosophy and policy of development. In fact, this has led to the emergence of a distinct school of human development in the field of social sciences. Sakiko Fukuda- Parr and A. K. Shiva Kumar have tried to explore the conceptual, quantitative and policy related aspects of the human development approach by bringing together some of the classic writings on the subject.

�After setting the historical context of the approach by one of the pioneers in the field, Amartya Sen, the book is divided into three sections: conceptual foundations, measurement and policy explorations.� The first section consists of the contributions by the founding fathers of the human development paradigm - Amartya Sen, Mahbub ul Haq, Paul Streeten and Richard Jolly. In his articles, Amartya Sen provides the essential distinction between social or human capital concerns namely, health, education and nutrition and human capability development, which ?focuses on the ability of human beings to lead lives they have reason to value most and to enhance the substantive choices they have?. (p. 35) In his article on the human development paradigm Mahbub ul Haq traces the historical evolution of the paradigm while providing parallel explanations to the relevant concepts of income and human choices, people?s participation, human security and human development index. Here development is considered as the condition that enlarges people?s choice to enjoy long, healthy and creative life. Another conceptual contribution of this paradigm is the Human Development Index (HDI). HDI enables expansion of the concept of poverty from low income to ?the denial of choices and opportunities for tolerable life?.� Human freedoms and respect for human rights became essential indicators of human development as noticed in the Human Development Reports since 2000. In a reflective article on the fallacy of equating the human development concept to the HDI, Sakiko Fukuda -Parr warns that indexing is only a means to achieve the ends of human development. She also raises key questions about the participation and role of civil society groups in shaping the course of development in an era of globalisation.

�The second section deals with the measurement of human development. It begins with an article by Mahbub ul Haq on the emergence of HDI. The HDI, in contrast to GNP, reflects the average achievements of a country along the three dimensions of human development: longevity, educational attainment and command over resources needed for a decent life.� Interestingly, while describing the evolution and characteristics of the HDI, Haq also stresses the scope for refinement by addressing the limitations of indexing such inadequate and unreliable data, adding more variables and raises the possibility of different HDIs for different groups of countries. The statistical aspects of the index are discussed by Sudhir Anand and Amartya Sen in their article on measurement and methodology, but the same methodology is critically reviewed by Kate Raworth and David Stewart by raising questions about the choice of indicators and the basis for weighting of components. In another article Sudhir Anand and Amartya Sen investigate the development and use of gender equity sensitive indicators. To overcome the limitations of HDI, an attempt has been made by Meghnad Desai to introduce ways of measuring political freedom. In this article personal security, rule of law, political participation, freedom of expression and equality before the law are suggested as clusters of indicators to measure political freedom. The editors, alongwith Kate Raworth, review the ways in which the HDI has been employed as a policy tool for evaluating and contrasting human development across countries. This chapter sets the tone for the third section pertaining to policy explorations.

In the third section the concept of human development is discussed, which is attractive at the theoretical level but difficult to implement at the policy level. Two prominent contributors to this approach, Gustav Ranis and Frances Stewart, propose an operational framework for analyzing public spending on human development through indicators like the public expenditure ratio, the social allocation ratio, the social priority ratio and the human expenditure ratio. An extract from the Human Development Report 1995 gives an insight into the ?under-valuation? of women?s work and its adverse impact on policy implementation, while another from the Human Development Report 1996 stresses the fact that there is no automatic link between growth and human development and hence ?more attention must go to the structure and quality of growth ? to ensure that it is directed to supporting human development, reducing poverty, protecting the environment and ensuring sustainability? (p. 279). The politics of poverty eradication comes into play in a situation where nations themselves have fewer choices in policymaking and implementation. For peaceful but fundamental reforms through collective action and democracy, community mobilization and social partnership, role of non-governmental organizations, capitalizing on the differences among the elites and exploiting state activism are some of the suggested policy measures in an extract from the Human Development Report 1997.� The discussion on human development cannot be complete without reference to environmental issues. The complex nature of the poverty-environment nexus is touched upon in this section along with some other dimensions of human development like human rights, gender and health. But most of them are only suggestive in nature but fail to analyze the policy impact of the human development approach.

Though almost every relevant aspect of the human development approach is addressed in the book, the differential understanding of human development for different groups of countries needs to be explored at the policy level. For instance, health or environmental issues cannot have the same weightage for a developed country as for a developing country. The proposition of adding political freedom as one of the indicators is essential to bring the concept of development out of the traditional economics-centric understanding. Unfortunately, this aspect has been little explored. At the policy level, more innovation and investigation was expected from the book, especially of relevance for the developing countries. This unfortunately was not fulfilled due to the theoretical rather than practical nature of policy suggestions. While the book succeeds in showing that the human development approach has a strong impact at the conceptual and measurement level, it fails to do the same at the policy level. These limitations underline the need for more refinement of the approach to carve out its place in policy making and implementation. Being an integral part of the ?intellectual journey? in the human development paradigm, the editors seem to be aware of these limitations. This approach by the editors makes this work a classic collection of articles for the basic understanding of the Human Development Approach. By expanding and universalizing the concept of development, this book provides a theoretical and normative contribution to the human development approach. In doing so it would definitely set the agenda for future exploration of the twelve-year-old paradigm.
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