On Gini coefficient and the poor in India.

Gini coefficient for India is meaningless considering the over $2 trillion of black money stashed by the well-heeled in Swiss and other overseas bank accounts. And that ill-gotten wealth is enough to wipe out most of India's federal deficit and public debt.  If you include that sum, India's Gini coefficient would be much higher. India, Germany and Canada being in the same Gini coefficient range should give you a clue as to what is wrong with that number.

Any one who has ever been to India would have observed staggering inequality of wealth. The costliest family home in the world is in India (Antilla, cost over $1 billion), and it is just one of the hundreds of palaces. On the other hand you see millions who lack a roof over their heads and wander scavenging for food.

Also there are many poor people in India simply because there are many more people there. There are also many poor people because of the socialist and protectionist policies followed for over half a century.

In all this, the most incredible fact is that there has not been a single famine in India since independence. By contrast, famines were a part of Indian life during the Raj. In the Bengal famine of 1943 alone the deaths due to the famine have been estimated in the 1.5-4.5 million range; that famine was caused primarily by the diversion of food from India to Europe to feed the soldiers there during the war WW2.