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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

#471

In states such as Andhra and Telangana, there is a public distribution scheme, which supplies subsidized rice and cooking oil for a long time, at least since 1985. Even in 1985, they supplied 1 kilo rice for 2 rupees--this price is kept that way even today. Families get like 25 kilos per month. For many, that is a savior, even though this rice is not of quality (like sona masuri, basmati). However, it is tasty when t…

The public distribution scheme is riddled with inefficiency and corruption.

My family is one beneficiary being below poverty line, You had to entertain the worst of lot, the local corporator, the PDS contractor so you get your PDS every month. There was also no fixed date by when it would be present, Most of the times the contractors are cheaters who replace that rice for a worse quality of rice(Almost always the grain in small)

I can promise you, That the 2 rupees rice is not tasty. It's horrible, It was not 25 kilo per month, If I remember correctly it was around 4 kilo per person per month till bjp came to power.

BTW, It was started by late CM of AP, N.T.R.

Direct money transfer is a better option every single time.

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

#472
post #228

I don't comment but also hate reading popular threads like this but I will do it anyway because someone was interested in hearing from someone living in India. There's so much emphasis (from comments) on information technology services contributing to this. This is a recent phenomenon. Growth due to IT services was extremely concentrated in a few cities and most took their family there. India was never a nation state…

I would argue that India's present success is in spite of the government, not because of it. The sectors that have seen the most success in India, namely the telecom, IT and services industries, were also those that were the least regulated (because our politicians weren't smart enough to even begin to comprehend technology to regulate it before it really took off in a big way).

As for the being a nation state part, sometimes I think we would have been better off in an EU type situation rather than being one large entity.

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

#473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> 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.

Much to India's detriment, I might add.

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

#474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

>we paid like 200k€ from our new house In which country is a new house 200k Euros?

The UK. Or at least, Northern Ireland. You won't be in a city centre, but there are new builds on offer under that mark.

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

#475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With this news, the UK now has more people living in poverty than India (16% vs 22%?) The severity of poverty in rich western nations is easy to underestimate. There are people in the UK who are underfed, can't afford heat, have to work multiple jobs etc. This kind of poverty does look different than poverty in India - better in some ways, but worse in others - but it is still poverty. The data on relative poverty…

In what ways does poverty in the UK look worse than poverty in India?

Poverty in the west is often of a different kind than in India. Deep poverty in India can look living in self build house in a slum, with no or low and irregular income most of which goes straight into food and necessities.

Deep poverty in the west often looks like having a stable income and roof, but being completely overwhelmed by high unavoidable static costs such as rent, health insurance, loan paybacks, etc. Of course this style of poverty is also present in India

They're different kinds of experience. I suspect the former is more dangerous, scary and unpleasant, but the latter is more depressing and suffocating.

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

#476

I really love India, have been visiting for tech business for over 20 years. I've found it to be one of the toughest countries to do business. I'd be more physically and mentally drained at the end of each day. And I'd fly out with a huge to do list. Yet there has been many heartening observations along the way. I saw a poor woman go up to the window of the frequent flyer lounge kitchen, she placed with her hands out…

Its a fantastic place to 'grow up' from whining western spoiled kid into mature adult, to get some grip on how real world is, unfair, cruel, harsh, but also amazingly beautiful.

The quickest and by far best way to do this is backpacking all around, taking slow public transport, sleeping cheap, eating cheap where locals eat etc. I've spent like 500$ per month there in 2010. Yes there may be unpleasant bowel issues but after weeks you will come back a slightly better human being, and memories and experiences will be part of your personality. Best parts are usually random interactions with anybody out there, asking for directions and ending up eating dinner with their family, haggling with rickshaws, seeing how untouchable caste lives, feeling the intense heat of burning bodies in front of me on Manikarnika ghat in Varanasi... I could go on and on for very long time.

I've done in my previous life 2x 3 months backpacking like that, just big fat lonely planet book and deciding what to do and where to go next on the spot. Everybody from west we met was doing exactly this, just time varied between few weeks to few years. Felt like being in completely different universe, friends and family back home just distant dream of a dream. Both times it also felt as spending few decades there. And oh boy did it change me for the better, even I could see it.

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

#477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finland

Very interesting. A very basic house in Austria is over 500k and not in a hot location, while to my knowledge wages here are not higher than in Finland. How is a house so cheap in Finland? 200k is basically Eastern/Southern European house prices, where wages are lower. I feel like the insane housing prices here are not just related to nimbyism that restricts supply, but mostly to speculation driven by banking, politi…

>How is a house so cheap in Finland?

Because nobody wants to live outside Helsinki these days. So there's a lot of supply and low demand everywhere else.

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

#478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are wrong in both your posts, colonialism literally raped every country and stole any wealth that was there to be stolen. Humans, animals, crops, minerals etc.

You should travel around a world a bit especially in affected countries/continents, clearly this enlightening activity evaded you.

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

#479
post #228

I don't comment but also hate reading popular threads like this but I will do it anyway because someone was interested in hearing from someone living in India. There's so much emphasis (from comments) on information technology services contributing to this. This is a recent phenomenon. Growth due to IT services was extremely concentrated in a few cities and most took their family there. India was never a nation state…

Hong Kong became much, much richer under Colonial rule, without a 'Constitution'.

No other nation needed 'school meals' in order to generate wealth, it's a nice program but hard to fathom as a 'root cause' of something.

The Non-Aligned movement? India would have been much richer, much more quickly, if they were to have aligned themselves with the West.

The Green Revolution / Op. Flood - well obviously that's huge, but does having more food equate to prosperity? I mean, wherever populations are exploding, usually it's pretty poor. Though I'm inclined to agree with you.

Trade Liberalization was unequivocally a big deal and FYI Green Revolution was arguably part of that, or at least tech transfer was.

If you throw in the last item, with the vast surpluses available from technology and productivity from richer nations, it amplifies quite a bit.

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

#480
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.

However, land is the most politically charged investment in India which is controlled by vested and powerful interests once over a certain threshold. It is not that straightforward. Compared to income , houses are very expensive. FSI is very low in India even with Transit oriented development finally becoming popular now. We may not have US style suburbia , however the GINI coefficient or anything similar calculated…

Why would you take a land locked city such as Mumbai for an example? How about Hyderabad or Chennai?
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