Reply #14: Quoting from one source does not make you right... [View All]

[smitra]

That one source you quoted from is a magazine that has a certain political agenda. Also, by its own admission the panel may have got the numbers wrong, and it is impossible to believe that -- it does not account for the fact that the Rs 440 quoted on food expenditures accounts for the subsidized rations available to many of the poor in govt. run 'ration shops'.

It is easy to deride Wikipedia, and seems to be a favorite thing to do on DU to refute statistics you don't like. If you look at the source from which this statistic on Wikipedia is quoted, it was the UNDP, which you are no doubt aware does a more thorough job than some panel.

I am from the country. I have traveled through some rural areas there recently. I can 'vomit up a host of Internet links' - your pet peeve apparently - that will tell you how much of progress has been made in these areas (granted, there is a long way to go).

Your attitude seems to be that of those my dad's friend met here in the 60s - a country of poor brown people, where you see starving beggars and snake charmers.