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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

#351

Post by dartharva »

Dharmakirti wrote: post #169
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

South Asia was captured by the East India Company, and the wealth of its people systematically extracted over centuries. This is different from the many other local wars and invasions that happened in India before and during this time, where either the invaders left after stealing wealth once, or they stayed and generally tried to improve the area they captured. Systematic extraction of wealth was only a feature of c…

> hate for capitalism is pretty old in certain parts of the world. I would like to have a different take. India has a strong merchant class since aeons and market economy was never a taboo culturally. You can see that in the entrepreneurs like Bansals, Agrawals, Shahs that are at the helm of Indian Unicorns. So yes, there is a skepticism about 'western' capitalism, but not for market economics.

This strong merchant class is also a strong minority. Ever since India became a nation it has staunchly stood against free-market policies and its popular vote overwhelmingly supports policies of regulation, subsidies and handouts as against privatization.

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

#352

Post by rishav_sharan »

While my country has made tremendous progress, I wonder how precise these numbers are.

India's poverty line doesn't gets redrawn every year to account for the inflation and increased cost of living.

The current definition of the poverty line is daily earnings 27 rs for rural areas and 33 for urban, which is a ludicrously low number. Even beggars earn more than that. Of course we will have very low poverty if we use stupid ways to measure it.

https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/paper3/poverty-esti...

Added to this is the shenanigans that our politicians play, where they may just lower the poverty line to declare a victory over it

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-13450959

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

#353

Post by haltingproblem »

speakspokespok wrote: post #246

A roommate in college was from a small rural village in Vietnam and a first gen college student. It took his entire extended family to pay the cost of tuition (international student rates). At the age of 18 he was putting in 60 -70 hours a week to his studies, as the responsibility he felt to his family to earn that sacrifice was overwhelming and less than an a perfect score visibly upset him. Not knowing any better…

Kudos to father and son.

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

#354

Post by onionopinion »

aerovistae wrote: post #13

Interested in comments from anyone who lives in India or has experience/familiarity with it as to whether reality on the ground matches the rosy picture painted in the article.

It has changed a lot this holds very dear to me as I come from very poor Indian village and have seen what people go through.

My village had mountain on one side and river on all three other side, so when my maternal grandfather died I had to cross a river with my little brother on top of me to see him.

My family was so poor that they sold goats to somehow manage my fees and used to skip mills on Monday to manage finances.

In few decades we have solar powered borewell in that remote village and I am earning very good earning.

Not only my family but everyone in village has been uplifted. My ancestors will lose their mind if they see us now.

I think this also has network effect for example before current era no one knew about opportunities present outside as information was no easily accessible in village.

One guy getting a job leads to ripple effect on other families perusing better job and education.

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

#355

Post by kranner »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #186
TremendousJudge wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be close to the situation. Do you think Indian Walmart is a future inevitability?

Some cities have “Big Bazaar” which is similar to a Walmart (smaller though, the Indian market doesn’t have the variety of brands and products other countries do). There certainly are a lot of other similar stores. A more American thing that isn't readily available is like a Costco, bulk shopping would be pretty tough there, and people are fine to go out on a more regular basis to pick up fresh milk/veggies. No Ameri…

Amazon India now offers weekly consolidation for many items with the occasional cashback incentive.

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

#356

Post by onionopinion »

Pmop wrote: post #299

So they lifted almost twice my home country's population out of poverty in 15 years? That's impressive. Also, how did India got to have so many people?

Atleast on story I have heard from my grand parents is:

In 1960s villages didn't have access to medicine or doctors. So people used to produce 5-7 children so atleast 1-2 went into adulthood.

But as medicine became more easily accessible all 5-7 children ended up in adulthood leading to population increase.

Nowadays I see max 2 children in villages.

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

#357

Post by dntrkv »

rikthevik wrote: post #345
retinaros wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ah yes, the doomer perspective. Tiresome.

It's not even doomer, it's just plain wrong and not based in reality whatsoever.

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

#358

Post by safog »

retinaros wrote: post #266
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #216

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

Unlikely because there's basically no NIMBY-ism in India. Any developer can just acquire land, some air rights and plop up apartment complexes. And unlike in the US, apartments in India are designed for family life and aren't just for young / unmarried folks.

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

#359

Post by ninjanomnom »

jonas21 wrote: post #313
rowanG077 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If India follows the west then it won't be possible for 2 people with education to lift a family out of poverty to middle class. In my country you basically require 2 full-time wages to be able to support a 3 person family. You wouldn't be able to buy an apartment and car for your family. I think that is the point they were making.

I don't know what western country you live in, but I'm guessing you have a very different definition of poverty than the article is using. The UN has a list of criteria such as: - Lacking access to electricity - Lacking access to drinking water within a 30 minute round-trip walk - Lacking access to sanitation facilities - No household members have completed at least 6 years of schooling - Any child in the household h…

During my childhood I fulfilled the first three for about four years or so and knew many others in similar situations. This was in the US, any country with significant undeveloped land is going to have areas that have people who fulfill the first three pretty easily.

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

#360

Post by JamesianP »

Zircom wrote: post #318
dkokelley wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Right now India is in a transition period and wages for these kinds of jobs are keeping pace with gains in productivity and that's how you're seeing so many lifting themselves are their families out of poverty. However, if history is anything to go by that will stop pretty soon as the hyper upper class solidifies their hold on wealth, appreciating assets, and means of production, and will start to keep larger and lar…

A large majority of the US owns their homes and has been greatly enriched by the distorted housing market. It's a moral hazard resulting from democracy if anything, as people vote themselves into housing monopolies and other advantage over newcomers.
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