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)
