Social Development Data and Societal Modelling : A Study in Indian Context

As we progress ahead and measure our growth in every field, science and technology or even societal development, every time, our focus is skewed and mostly myopic on what we achieved and what more to be done and how fast to be done. We seldom study what we really missed and skewed our development is. A retrospection and introspection, many a times, help us making a course correction. A development, or any economic growth, is no development if it not for all and leaves a section of society. This paper, looks at different social development models and important development indices which are in use today globally and analyses social development data in Indian context. It refers to Mahalanobis D-square statistics and other Indian studies, and attempts to suggest newer social development indices, using secondary data. It discusses issues relating to ‘social-big-data’, as available from secondary sources, published by various agencies. Paper presents a conceptual model for measuring the social wellbeing of individuals