Delhi has a population of nearly 14 million and its inhabitants inhabit an area roughly 1483sq.km with the population of New Delhi alone exploding to 11,680,000. After Mumbai, Tokyo, and Japan, Delhi is expected to become the third largest aggregation in the globe by the year 2015. The people living below the poverty line accounted to 8.23% of the total population in 1999-2000.
Approximately 34% of India’s population live in slums and 20% of Indians live on less than a dollar a day, whilst 70% live on less then 2 dollars a day. The slums of Delhi provide a stark reality for those living below the poverty line.
I think this coming from one of fastest growing economies in the world is a dissapointment. India is not just a powerful economy growing at a rate of more than 10% annually, but also one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.
I think that the challenge is the growing population and something needs to be done about it. The solution here can be learnt from a country such as Japan whereby policy have a positive effect on the population.
India can also learn alot from countries such as China and South Africa regarding enterpreneural skills provided by government to the people with government initiatives such as Umsobomvu youth fund which provides funding to SMMEs. I think this will benefit India morethan South Africa because of the talent that exist in that country.
The country has expressed interest in investing in countries such as Brazil and South Africa (the latest Capitec investment). I see this as a start for India to place themselves highly on the map as an economic powerhouse.
Comment by Themba — October 29, 2007 @ 8:00 am