Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 544 posts

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

#411

Post by jojobas »

ausudhz wrote: post #397
jojobas wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they essentially exported their poverty to the first world.

or probably the first world was stealing their assets (natural resources) while exporting disgrace (weapons, drugs)? You should read a bit more so you'd know for example what the opium wars have done to China and what the colonialism has done to India (both perpetrated by the same first world country) Historically India and China were always the wealthiest (up to the second industrial revolution) regions out there (a…

Sure, let's justify a modern disaster by a past one.

First world's wealth of the 20th century had nothing to do with India's or China's misfortunes of yesteryear, European/US de-industrialization and poverty is 100% globalization-inflicted.

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

#412

Post by searchableguy »

akudha wrote: post #138
db1234 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything is rosy anywhere in the world. One can find issues with any positive story. I would rather have expensive real estate problem due to high paying jobs than poverty.

During my dad's time, it was much easier to buy a house on a modest salary. And the houses were well built too. These days, it is near impossible to buy a house unless you are a very high earner, as all available real estate is being gobbled up by "investors", aka, who have high paying jobs (mostly software). It is good that we are elevating people from poverty. All I am saying is it creates a different set of proble…

Just live on rent. It will be far cheaper and flexible in India. The rent won't even pay the EMI for home loans for vast majority of these land lords in metros.

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

#413

Post by antupis »

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

>middle class wont be able to buy houses

It is just depends place there is still places where nimbyism does not run rampart. We we paid like 200k€ from our new house.

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

#414

Post by searchableguy »

nicbou wrote: post #363
rishav_sharan wrote: post #352

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 s…

To put things in perspective, I have 40 Rs in my wallet now, and I can't buy anything with it. It's less than a dollar, and it feels like less than a dollar. Edit: to put things in perspective, I'm a tourist

You can get bhel puri and vada pav for that much in most parts of India. :D

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

#415

Post by kamaal »

nsenifty wrote: post #68
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #3

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.

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.

In the 2000s landing a job in Infosys in India was really the equivalent of landing a job in FAANG's. May be even more than that because the era preceding it has such scarcity in terms of opportunity, that it was literally the equivalent of landing a job in some promised land.

If you didn't go into government jobs, where there was lots of bribe income potential. The next best paying jobs were in IT services namely three big IT giants Infosys, Wipro and TCS. It was also a huge social status symbol to get a job in these companies.

Of course many made it big, many didn't. Many realised the same corruption and Indian social practices applied to these companies too. While there was definitely a base upgrade in terms of a salary. The big opportunities, promotions, travel were subject to discrimination, bigotry and corrupt practices plaguing Indian society. And by early 2010's there was total disillusionment with these companies. Many MNCs set up their own shops in Bangalore, where the systems were relatively fair and HR practices, though not perfect did work to some extent. 2010s were all about working in MNCs directly.

Then came the start up era. While some made it really big, start ups in India like everywhere are subject to same lottery set up and also some Indian founders can be stingy with equity, and many turn up to be straight up frauds.

Software jobs did move the needle by a big margin in moving Indians from lower-middle/poor class to middle class.

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

#416

Post by hoseja »

FooBarWidget wrote: post #203
nsenifty wrote: post #68

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.

When I see Indian developers, I have in my mind that they're similar to Chinese: the whole village bands together and gather resources to give that one kid a university education and a good job, so that that one kid returns to the village many years later to help people out of poverty.

And too bad when the kid doesn't really want to be a developer.

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

#417

Post by ciphol »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #204
akudha wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything is rosy though. In cities like Bangalore, real estate is super expensive, thanks to software salaries. The same is happening in second, third tier cities now. But generally speaking, yes, all it takes is one person from a family landing a white collar job. And life becomes (relatively) much better

India’s physical infrastructure has honestly fallen way, way behind our digital infrastructure. Absurd that I can go a month in India without ever using cash or cards, order everything I want from anywhere and have it delivered within a day (or even minutes), yet it can sometimes take me 45 minutes to travel 3k and that my car’s suspension breaks down at 50k kilometers because there is no public transport and the roa…

India's going on a massive metro rail spree and also massively improving intercity rail. Things are significantly improving, though there will always be traffic in a city the size of Delhi or Mumbai.

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

#418

Post by cpach »

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

“The future’s not set. There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

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

#419

Post by cpach »

int_19h wrote: post #402
safog wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This was all true in US at some point.

Maybe. Even so, AFAICT USA and India are vastly different countries though. I wouldn’t take it for granted that India will develop in exactly the same way that USA did.

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

#420

Post by Xx25 »

FooBarWidget wrote: post #203
nsenifty wrote: post #68

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.

When I see Indian developers, I have in my mind that they're similar to Chinese: the whole village bands together and gather resources to give that one kid a university education and a good job, so that that one kid returns to the village many years later to help people out of poverty.

I lived in Indian villages for several decades. I have never seen a single instance of this "village bands together and gather resources to give that one kid a university education". Of course, people do help each other etc.,
Post reply on HN