India: Per Capita Income up 14.5%

 Econintersect:  Data is now in for the financial year 2009-10 and India’s per capita income rose by 14.5% to Rs 46,492.  At today’s exchange rate, this is $1,013.  There was an extreme divergence between urban and rual populations.   The most recent fiscal year for which the exact data has been broken out (2004-05), the percapita income was Rs 16,327 in rural areas and Rs 44,223 in urban areas.India has a very high rural population so the income discrepancy effects hundreds of millions of people.  There are a number of reasons why rural India has much poverty, but lack of infrastructure is a major factor.  See GEI Analysis articles by Pravin Krishna, Devashi Mitra and Asha Sundaram and Ejaz Ghani here and here.

Source:  The Times of India and GEI Analysis (links in news brief)