South Asia - Poverty
Monsoon and regional disparities
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Overview
India, the second largest country in the world in terms of population, has experienced a tremendous economic boom since the early 1990s and has reached top international levels in growth sectors such as information technology, but is still a developing country. According to the HDI, India was ranked 131 out of 189 (classified as having a medium level of human development) in 2020.
A closer look at the Indian development
Although India has seen huge growth rates in imports and exports in recent years and GDP has increased significantly (+22 per cent between 2013 and 2016), millions of Indians live in grinding poverty. About one third of India's population, nearly 400 million people, live below the poverty line; a large proportion of them, around 200 million people, suffer from hunger. The poorest inhabitants of the country live either in the sprawling marginal settlements of the numerous megacities or in particularly rural regions such as the state of Bihar, where no industry worth mentioning has established itself, and even agriculture can barely feed a family.
In the regional differentiation, the north-east of India proves to be particularly hard hit, while the economically strong states in the south and north-west as well as the capital region stand out positively.
