India has one third of world's poorest, says World Bank
One in three of the world's poorest people are living in India, the world's second-fastest growing economy, according to a new study by the World Bank.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10003228/India-has-one-third-of-worlds-poorest-says-World-Bank.html [/QUOTE]
Yes, that may be true. However, consider following :
At the time of Independence India might have had more than one half of the world poor, The country which used to contribute 25 percent of world GDP at the beginning of the 19th century landed at 2 per cent of world GDP in 1947.
Roughly 40 percent of the world’s poor live in South Asia, where poverty is basically a rural problem.
Indian population is more than a sixth of the
world's population.
Already containing 17.5% of the world's population.
India's population density is one of the highest - 954 per sq mi (compared to Pakistan -551 per sq miles, China 365 per sq mi, ).
Most of the rich and fertile arable areas of Indian subcontinent - Punjab and Bangladesh had been taken from traditional / historical India and given to what was created as Pakistan. At independence what was left with India ? High Himalayas, dry Vindhyas, Daccan and coastal areas and Ghats. Agriculture in Ganga plains in Bihar and UP had been sucked dry by Muslim invaders, the British and their exploitative policies !!
India has been able to bring the poverty rate at around 27 percent from more than 60 percent existing in 60s and 70s albeit only above international poverty rate of the UNO.
India has brought a very huge population - sometime the equivalent of entire population of England or France above poverty line in their march to living with dignity out of thousands of years of servitude and exploitation
.