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India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

economictimes.indiatimes.com

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Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first job was in Infosys back in 2001. Coming from a lower-middle class farming family, it was a huge deal. My monthly gross was something my dad (farmer) + mom (school teacher) would earn in an entire year. I remember my dad proudly putting a portrait of NR Narayana Murthy (founder of Infosys) on our wall - it is usually reserved for gods/ancestors or revered sages.

For anyone that doesn’t know (although admittedly not particularly relevant, but topical) Narayana Murthy is the FIL of the now-current UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

What is fil?

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that many people who say, "I just hate the CCP" go on to say things like, * "China steals everything" (which essentially labels Chinese people as thieves). * "Chinese scientists created CoVID-19 and then lied about it" (alleging that Chinese scientists have no integrity). * "China only copies" (implying that Chinese people aren't creative). * "Chinese numbers are all fake" (implying that millions of Ch…

The Chinese government has built work camps and committed genocide against Muslims in their northwestern provinces. With the CCP covering up things like that, I don't think it really matters how nuanced or rosy you are trying to be.

> committed genocide

This is an incredible claim, given that nobody has even alleged that China is killing anyone in Xinjiang.

I recall when "genocide" used to mean "murder of a race" (as both the history of the term and its etymology make clear). It's now being devalued by obviously hyperbolic, rhetorical use.

I didn't consider it "genocide" when the US killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Iraq. If that's not genocide, there's no way it's genocide when China carries out political indoctrination in Xinjiang.

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My FIL funded their maid’s kids education. The son got into a decent engineering school and landed a job at TCS. The daughter studied nursing and got a job at a large chain hospital. The kids bought their mom an apartment and a car. Its just amazing to watch - this woman’s mom, grandmom, aunts, uncles were all peasants or did odd trades. Now because of a single generation, the entire family could dream of middle clas…

its amazing. and unfortunately they will be the last generation that will be able to do it. just like for western countries everything will become unaffordable and the middle class wont be able to buy houses

I'm not sure of your point, but I think I disagree. The previous comment was about going from poverty to middle class. Why won't this be possible in the future?

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone that doesn’t know (although admittedly not particularly relevant, but topical) Narayana Murthy is the FIL of the now-current UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

What is fil?

Father-in-law. Like BIL for Brother-in-law.

Apropos, I've always wondered where the terms gf and bf, for girlfriend and boyfriend, came from, i.e. the West, or India. Wonder, because many such short forms come from or are unique to Indian English.

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone that doesn’t know (although admittedly not particularly relevant, but topical) Narayana Murthy is the FIL of the now-current UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.

What is fil?

Father-in-law

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, she has a Masters in French Lit from one of our relatively well-respected schools, but obviously I completely disagree with her on most political topics. These kinds of stances are more common than you'd think in Canadian academic circles.

> Masters in French Lit Like I said, get educated friends, not friends who think reading some poetry is education. This isn't England in the middle ages where that would have been considered an education.

I think this is a kneejerk take -- the study of literature generally encompasses an intersection of the study of the society, culture, economy, history that produced that literature. In other words, if you study Medieval English Literature, you also study the historical context that surrounds that subject. My opinion: I would consider his friend well-educated and curious enough about the world that she got a Masters degree in a specialized field.

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#287

One of the best things about living in India is watching families move from lower or lower-middle class to middle-class status. Usually, all it takes is someone from the family landing a white-collar job. While the tech bodyshops (TCS, Infosys, etc.) might have a poor reputation in the US, these companies have been absolutely critical in helping move tens of millions into middle-class respectability.

>While the tech bodyshops (TCS, Infosys, etc.) might have a poor reputation in the US, these companies have been absolutely critical in helping move tens of millions into middle-class respectability.

At the cost of Americans dealing with poorer tech support, buggier software (sometimes critical software that leads to million dollar losses), and employment fraud (like lip syncing in interviews where someone else answers the questions connected to the mic).

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#288
post #180

Why does the US need to stick to a 2% inflation rate? India's has exceeded 5% for decades ( https://www.worlddata.info/asia/india/inflation-rates.php#:~... .). Indian stock market shows no signs of recession. If you held since 1990 (or inception) (data from tv https://www.tradingview.com/x/rGnAJxlH/ ) : Ethereum +9110% India NIFTY50 +6059% Bitcoin +5566% Nasdaq100 +4705% Shanghai SSE Composite +2307% NIFTY100 +1709%…

> Why does the US need to stick to a 2% inflation rate? Because high inflation means the money in your bank account becomes worthless at an exponential pace.

Which encourages investment and spending, stimulating the economy, rather than letting money sit idle.

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#289

I don't understand poverty statistics. With this news, the UK now has more people living in poverty than India (16% vs 22%?). If it is valuable to judge poverty on relative income, you would think the rational course of action would be mass immigration from the UK to India but that is clearly not the case.

Discussions about poverty is usually confused by the two competing definitions: - Absolute Poverty: If you have less than $X/day, you are poor. This measures living standards. - Relative Poverty: If you're in the bottom x%, you are poor. This measures status. Without knowing anything, it sounds like this measurement is more on the Relative Poverty side.

I don't understand how relative poverty can improve.

Re: India lifted 415M out of poverty in 15 years, says UN

#290

One of the best things about living in India is watching families move from lower or lower-middle class to middle-class status. Usually, all it takes is someone from the family landing a white-collar job. While the tech bodyshops (TCS, Infosys, etc.) might have a poor reputation in the US, these companies have been absolutely critical in helping move tens of millions into middle-class respectability.

Not only tech jobs (which certainly have been the biggest factor in lifting tons of lower income to middle/higher income status) but overall due to globalization, lot of jobs have opened up in the past 25 or so years.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s in India and moved to US in 2000. Now I am a US Citizen but when I do go back to visit, I literally know people who were poor/lower middle class and they all are now living upper middle class lifestyles (have a nice car, eat outside a lot , have their own home etc).

Some factors:

- Globalization of economy opening up in the 90s

- Tech and other jobs (manufacturing etc) but more importantly, lot of global companies opening shop after the economy opened up in 90s. It is still not as friendly to outside companies as say China but things are changing even though slowly in a complex country like India

- Rise of Internet especially since the introduction of Jio Data by Reliance. It has changed the game significantly. An average Indian may not have a Computer necessarily BUT they all have data and internet on their phones and almost everyone can order almost anything on their phone including paying for bills (UPI is amazing)

- Mindset of young people is changing especially as more people are now exposed to other countries/culture through TV, youtube/internet, Movies, Travel. Capitalism is becoming more favorable compared to old school thinking of socialism and the whole "Raj" mentality that was left over by British and continued for decades by previous Govts.

There is still a lot of extreme poverty in pure numbers (population size) but I have no doubts that overall, millions have moved from extreme poverty to lower or middle income status in last 2 decades.

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