Poverty

21 Oct 2010  · comment

The Great Indian Economic Rope Trick

The mantra “world’s-second fastest-growing-economy” is often thrown at every problem this country faces as if it were a solution. It reminds me of the ‘mere pas ma hai’ dialogue from ‘Deewar’. I must admit that if you are wealthy and live in an upmarket area of a metropolis, it is easy to miss the big picture. We are swamped by air-conditioned malls, multiplexes, BMWs, fancy toll-roads, huge corporate hospitals, swanky airports; clearly we must be making rapid progress, right? Well, data shows that is not the case. On an individual level some wealthy people like you and me are much better off than we were a couple of years ago, but that cannot be said of the other one billion citizens of India. Data from official Government of India publications, World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports underlines this bitter truth.