India's 400 million poverty stricken...

Society Business and Career
1

Upto 40% of Indian’s live in poverty, and with it’s population still growing by tens of millions every year this figure will no doubt continue to increase.

http://www.indiaonestop.com/povertyindia.htm

Even more than 50 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains the most shameful blot on the face of India.

India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas.

More than 40 per cent of the population is illiterate, with women, tribal and scheduled castes particularly affected.

It would be incorrect to say that all poverty reduction programmes have failed. The growth of the middle class (which was virtually non-existent when India became a free nation in August 1947) indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH has been very uneven.

The main causes of poverty are illiteracy, a population growth rate by far exceeding the economic growth rate for the better part of the past 50 years, protectionist policies pursued since 1947 to 1991 which prevented large amounts of foreign investment in the country.

Poverty alleviation is expected to make better progress in the next 50 years than in the past, as a trickle-down effect of the growing middle class. Increasing stress on education, reservation of seats in government jobs and the increasing empowerment of women and the economically weaker sections of society, are also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty.

Eradication of poverty can only be a very long-term goal in India.

2

^Only 40%? Blow me down, I thought it was closer to 90%. Why can't we learn from Pakistan how to eradicate poverty, reach 100% literacy and -5% population growth!

3

And with extreme poverty in such large numbers Karina, come other notable trouble areas for india:

Murder rankings

  1. India 37,170 (1999)
  2. Russia 28,904 (2000)
  3. Colombia 26,539 (2000)
  4. South Africa 21,995 (2000)
  5. Mexico 13,829 (2000)
  6. United States 12,658 (1999)
  7. Venezuela
  8. etc

Rape rankings

  1. United States 89,110 (1999)
  2. South Africa 53,008 (2000)
  3. Canada 24,049 (2000)
  4. Australia 15,630 (2000)
  5. India 15,468 (1999)
  6. etc

Assault rankings

  1. United States 2,238,480 (1999)
  2. South Africa 535,461 (2000)
  3. United Kingdom 450,865 (2000)
  4. Mexico 255,179 (2000)
  5. India 236,313 (1999
  6. etc

HIV deaths ranking

  1. India 310,000 (1999 est.)
  2. South Africa 300,000 (2000 est.)
  3. Ethiopia 280,000 (1999 est.)
  4. Nigeria 250,000 (1999 est.)
  5. Kenya 180,000 (1999 est.)
  6. etc

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_gdp_gro_199

4

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by karina: *
^Only 40%? Blow me down, I thought it was closer to 90%. Why can't we learn from Pakistan how to eradicate poverty, reach 100% literacy and -5% population growth!
[/QUOTE]

Karina,

I dunno if this is good news or bad but it seems that all the violent incidents mentioned work out to affect about .0005 percent of the population. I think the law of averages works on your side if you are in India then..hehehe

But seriously, I think we should follow our neighbours' example and remove poverty completely....

5

Jazakallah, thanks for sharing!:slight_smile:

Can we pls have the latest ‘Indian’ rankings on pestilential desease, womens rights, animal rights, incest, child abuse, vaccination capabilities and aeronautical blunders of the IAF?

6

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Toddytapper: *

Karina,

I dunno if this is good news or bad but it seems that all the violent incidents mentioned work out to affect about .0005 percent of the population. I think the law of averages works on your side if you are in India then..hehehe

But seriously, I think we should follow our neighbours' example and remove poverty completely....
[/QUOTE]

Toddytapper are you really a toddy tapper?

Be serious, we cannot ever follow our neighbors' example....is layak nahin hai. :)

7

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by karina: *

Toddytapper are you really a toddy tapper?

Be serious, we cannot ever follow our neighbors' example....is layak nahin hai. :)
[/QUOTE]

But you have to admit, any kind of Social studies projects that have to be done, we know who to approach for the statistics?

8

^ Especially if you want a whole new slant on the subject. Only an expert can play around with stats to make black look white and vice versa. LOL

9

Look what I found....

India can grow at 8%, says World Bank

Agencies | November 12, 2003 14:37 IST

India can achieve its target of 8 per cent GDP growth rate during the Tenth Five-Year Plan, said the World Bank on Wednesday.

The bank also said that the Indian economy will grow by 6 to 7 per cent in the current fiscal year on the back of big agricultural growth due to an excellent monsoon, strong economic indicators, rise in manufacturing activity, low interest rates and a stable global economic environment.

The bank, however, said that for India to gallop on the road to high growth, it needed to curb its fiscal deficit, pick up the pace of economic reforms and spend more on infrastructure projects.

World Bank Country Director Micheal F Carter said: "The short-term outlook for India is positive. We will see a strong recovery this year,'' he said on the sidelines of a function organised by the Western International University."

''In the longer term, we see the potential for an even faster growth but for that many steps need to be seriously pursued by the Central and state governments,'' he said.

He, however, said that there was no need for much concern over the government's fiscal deficit (which is at above 5 per cent of the GDP) at this point in time.

''I feel that it will not be much of a problem as with growth, the fiscal deficit is expected to come down in the long run".

''Though the consolidated fiscal deficit of the Centre and the states is above 10 per cent, the Indian economy has higher underlying growth potential. India can live with higher fiscal deficit,'' said Carter.

Higher growth, he said, would ensure that the financial sector too springs back to health.

He, however, pointed out some ''serious impediments'', which needed to be tackled for sustaining the growth momentum.

''These include improving infrastructure, literacy and health. Attention needs to be given to the small and medium enterprises and agriculture," he said.

''Distortions in agriculture need to be addressed and diversification of farm economy encouraged,'' he said.

The encouraging words from the World Bank follow similar forecasts by the Reserve Bank of India, National Council of Applied Economic Research, Confederation of Indian Industry and other economic think tanks.

The World Bank shared its bullishness over the Indian economy with the Reserve Bank of India, the National Council of Applied Economic Research, the Confederation of Indian Industry and other economic think-tanks.

10

PSB said that the poverty figures of Pakistan for the last two years were not even collected and the poverty has actually grown by more than 130% in last 15 years and stands at approx. 35% of total Pakistan's population presently. That makes us look like a dwarf (proportionately speaking)

11

I can give a couple of such newsreports everyday, but, of course, they won’t be from pakistan newspapers.
http://www.nriol.com/content/articles/article54.html
**“India’s GDP can grow to US$ 1.1 trillion” **
Dr William Lewis, director of the McKinsey Global Institute is very bullish on India’s long-term economic growth. He is of the view that “India’s GDP could grow to as much as US$ 1100 billion and India would be among the fastest growing economies in the world.”

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2003/oct/28india.htm
India to be 3rd biggest economy by 2050: Report
Over the next 50 years, the model assumes that GDP will rise at an average annual clip of 3.8 per cent in Brazil, nearly 6 per cent in India, 4.7 per cent in China, and 3.2 per cent in Russia, versus the US’ projected 1.7 per cent. It also assumes that the value of the four nations’ currencies will rise.

12

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=278335
**India to pre-pay $2.6 billion loans **
“In one stroke, the government will now extinguish from its books its entire pool currency loans from the World bank”

$2.8 billion prepaid last year. and there will be other (bilateral) prepayments of $1.5 billion this year.

that’s almost ~$7 billion costly debt paid off.

13

World Bank says India can grow at 8% (excerpts)

The bank also said that the Indian economy will grow by 6 to 7 per cent in the current fiscal year
He said that there was no need for much concern over the government’s fiscal deficit (which is at above 5 per cent of the GDP) at this point in time.

''I feel that it will not be much of a problem as with growth, the fiscal deficit is expected to come down in the long run".

‘‘Though the consolidated fiscal deficit of the Centre and the states is above 10 per cent, the Indian economy has higher underlying growth potential. India can live with higher fiscal deficit,’’ said Carter

14

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Toddytapper: *

He, however, pointed out some ''serious impediments'', which needed to be tackled for sustaining the growth momentum.

''These include improving infrastructure, literacy and health. Attention needs to be given to the small and medium enterprises and agriculture," he said.

''Distortions in agriculture need to be addressed and diversification of farm economy encouraged,'' he said.
[/QUOTE]

This and more! The picture looks very rosy but so much to do before we can call ourselves a 'developed country'.

15

Who is calling ourselves a developed country? The point is we are going in the right direction and growing exponentially (and not slowly as we did till 80s)

16

Add on just over 4.5% actual growth in the last year, collapsing FDI and tens of millions born into poverty every year amongst other things and you have a truer picture.

17

[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Malik73: *
Add on just over 4.5% **actual* growth in the last year, collapsing FDI
[/QUOTE]

the FDI inflow for the period April-July, 2003 was $3178 million and cumulative inflow was $ 34.58 billion during 1991to August 2003. Though it is nowhere near to the actual potential, but still a good figure (not as good as Paki though :D ) given our bureaucracy.

India's export in the field of IT only was more than Pakistan's total exports.

18

Wrong.

FDI in India fell a staggering 56 percent during April-July from the corresponding period in 2002-03…Total FDI in the first four months of the current fiscal touched only $529 million, down from $1.22 billion logged in the April-July period of previous year…](http://www.southasiamonitor.org/economy/2003/sep/04india.htm)

So next time you quote any stats don’t multiply them by six times, and pass it off for the truth, because it can leave you terribly exposed. :slight_smile:

While you are digesting that, I suggest you read the following as well, and you will see that India’s not so impressive FDI inflow compares pretty pathetically to it’s neighbours to the north and west of it…

India attracted only $ 3.4 billion in 2002 as against $ 52.7 billion by China in the same year.

UNCTAD’s report once again highlights the miserable state of
foreign investment in India](http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep06/edits.asp)

19

Malik here is a report by goldman sachs that presents a more balanced picture of what is going on. while the poverty levels of poor is an issue the growth cant really be denied.

http://www.gs.com/insight/research/reports/99.pdf

20

I am not surprised FDI has fallen over the last couple of years so much, after all we have been trying to keep the Paki’s in check, and there have been the unfortunate Gujrat riots, started by the Muslims.

Don’t worry India will bounce back.

Communal violence hitting FDI into India: US envoy

The United States on Tuesday said Indo-Pak tensions, recent communal violence in Gujarat and ‘uncertainty’ over divestment policies were putting brakes on flow of foreign investments into India.

“There is no question that tensions between India and Pakistan and communal violence dampen investors’ urge to come into the Indian market,” US Ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill said at a FICCI meeting on ‘US-India Economic Relations: The Missing Piece’ in New Delhi.

Communal violence in Gujarat made Americans wary of even visiting India as tourists, he said.

“India is not an attractive destination. For investments to come long period of stability and long-period of no serious communal violence were essential),” he said.

Americans, he said, hesitate to invest in India because of the uncertainty over India’s economic reforms. “The divestment debate in the last two months is only the latest example.”

Potential US investors feel Indian taxes and tariffs were too high and there was much government interference over business decisions, Blackwill said.

“US pharmaceutical and biotech companies would expand their presence here if India had a modern legal framework to protect product patents,” he said, while drawing parallels with China which had forged ahead of India on most economic measures and was an attractive destination for US investors.