Land of extremes

- Civic behaviour

“I was standing at an airport looking for the Air India counter. Amongst the queues I noticed a group of people shouting and fighting; and over them was written ‘Air India.'” These are not the precise words of the author, but she said something similar in the Eye Magazine. Queues are hard to find, people rarely show up on time, traffic rules are commonly flouted and numerous other things show civic sense is India has a long way to go.

The ugly

- Poverty

Despite having one of the largest GDPs in the world, India is also home to more poor than all Sub Saharan African countries combined. Poverty in India is so extreme in some cases that people are forced to sell their children for a few kilograms of rice and wheat. A report in Hindustan Times a few months ago showed pictures of children in Uttar Pradesh eating dirt. A 2010 report by Arjun Sengupta suggested approximately 70% Indians were living on less than US $1.5 a day. At the same time, the number of dollar millionaires is on the rise. The wealth of India’s 100 richest families is more than one-fifth of the annual Indian GDP.