The Indian economy is now the fourth largest in the world in terms of nominal GDP of ₹330 lakh crores. This needs to be unpacked to understand what it means in actual terms about the economic status of most Indian citizens. 30% of the GDP is contributed by Government expenditure from the Union to the local. Therefore, the contribution from private persons is roughly ₹230 lakh crores. The bottom 50% of the population contributes 5% of this private GDP or about ₹ 11.5 lakh crores. We can ignore for the time being the minimal benefits that accrue to the vast masses from Government expenditure and then we see that the per capita expenditure contribution of the bottom 50% of the population to the GDP is only 11500000000000/0.5*1450000000 = ₹15862. Thus, despite being the fourth largest economy in the world we have half the population living on just ₹43 or less per day.
Alternatively, if we estimate per capita incomes for the lowest 50% then we get from the World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD?locations=IN) the latest value for 2023 as current US$ 2540, which at the then prevailing exchange rate of 82.5 comes to ₹209550. That means the total income of the country is ₹209550x1450million. Now, the bottom 50% contributes only 5% of this total income so the average per capita income of the bottom 50% = ₹20955.
Thus, the overall GDP is large because we have a large population but most of them are living in extremely low standards both earning and spending minimally.
A non Adivasi person's respectful celebration of the struggles of the Bhil indigenous people of India against the depredations of modern development - mostly exhilarating but sometimes depressing stories of a people who believe in drinking life to the leas.
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