India: Half a dollar a day 'adequate', says panel

[gulte]

5000 RS per month in India being middle class is a joke right?

in China, 2500 RMB per month (20000 RS) is just enough to survive in a tier 2 city. Food alone is 800 RMB (6400 RS) per month.

Unlike China, food and fuel is provided for poor in India at very subsidized prices, every BPL family in my state of AP receives 30KG of rice @ 2RS/KG, 4KG of dal @ 5RS/KG, 2 Lts of edible oil @ 10RS/liter, 2kg of sugar @ 15RS/Kg and 4 lts of kerosine at 15RS/liter. Lets calculate these essentials at market prices rice(30X20), dal (4X50), oil (2X30), sugar (2x35), kerosine (4x40) comes out to around 1100RS for which the consumer is only spending 190RS. So govt is providing 900 RS subsidy per month for a BPL family of four.

Coming to your chest thumping statistics, India is not china, by gods grace the prices haven't gone that high as of yet. My annual salary is rupee equivalent of 30000$ and my monthly expenses for House is (1500sq ft 2BHK with AC's bedrooms and other stuff) around 10000RS which i share with my brother, Food expenses comes around 4000RS including gas. So the logical deduction should be food and housing is still cheap in India.

Now, China produces 5x the agricultural output of India, yet still imports food.

India has roughly the same population, has 5x lower output, and exports food. Food therefore, should not be cheaper just by supply and demand.

How the hell can you survive?

I bet you got those numbers straight out of your keister, China agricultural output is at max 1.5 times more to India. I know chinese are good at BSing but not this level.

 

[MrProudIndian]

32 Rs are enough?Then why are we hiking the salaries of the MLA's and MP's?

 

[Skyline]

I thought Sri Lanka has the lowest cost of living in south asia, but it seems India has the cheapest rates.

In Sri Lanka...

Electricity bill around 3000 LKR
Water bill around 600 LKR
ADSL line around 2000 LKR
home phone bill 2000 LKR
Peo TV bill around 1000 LKR
LP Gas 12.5 kg around 2000 LKR
Mobile phone bill around 2000 LKR

so all monthly bills - 12600 LKR

 

[harpoon]

I thought Sri Lanka has the lowest cost of living in south asia, but it seems India has the cheapest rates.

It all depends on the price of diesel.

 

[below_freezing]

Unlike China, food and fuel is provided for poor in India at very subsidized prices, every BPL family in my state of AP receives 30KG of rice @ 2RS/KG, 4KG of dal @ 5RS/KG, 2 Lts of edible oil @ 10RS/liter, 2kg of sugar @ 15RS/Kg and 4 lts of kerosine at 15RS/liter. Lets calculate these essentials at market prices rice(30X20), dal (4X50), oil (2X30), sugar (2x35), kerosine (4x40) comes out to around 1100RS for which the consumer is only spending 190RS. So govt is providing 900 RS subsidy per month for a BPL family of four.

Coming to your chest thumping statistics, India is not china, by gods grace the prices haven't gone that high as of yet. My annual salary is rupee equivalent of 30000$ and my monthly expenses for House is (1500sq ft 2BHK with AC's bedrooms and other stuff) around 10000RS which i share with my brother, Food expenses comes around 4000RS including gas. So the logical deduction should be food and housing is still cheap in India.




I bet you got those numbers straight out of your keister, China agricultural output is at max 1.5 times more to India. I know chinese are good at BSing but not this level.

China's agriculture is 10% of a 6 trillion dollar economy; that is to say, agriculture in China is a 600 billion dollar industry.

India's agriculture is 18% of a 1.5 trillion dollar economy; that is to say, agriculture in India is a 270 billion dollar industry. About 3 times difference in worth.

Grains coarse grain production statistics - countries compared - NationMaster Agriculture

By tonnage, China is indeed almost 5x larger than India. Of course, USA doubles China.

 

[DarK-LorD]

GoI should increase this to 6400 per month for a family of four:
2500-3000 on Food.
2000-2500 on Rent.
1400-1500 on Others(incl.Health,Edu etc)

 

[gulte]

China's agriculture is 10% of a 6 trillion dollar economy; that is to say, agriculture in China is a 600 billion dollar industry.

India's agriculture is 18% of a 1.5 trillion dollar economy; that is to say, agriculture in India is a 270 billion dollar industry. About 3 times difference in worth.

Grains coarse grain production statistics - countries compared - NationMaster Agriculture

By tonnage, China is indeed almost 5x larger than India. Of course, USA doubles China.

I don't know what coarse grain is about, but it wasn't only thing that determines the amount of food produced.

according to Grains rice production statistics - countries compared - Nationmaster China produced 118,000 thousand metric tons of rice where as India produced 89,000 thousand metric tons. According to Grains wheat production statistics - countries compared - Nation Master China produced 87,000 thousand metric tons of wheat where as India produced 67,000 thousand metric tons. I don't know what they are teaching at Chinese schools, but don't take anyone for granted.

---------- Post added at 02:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:05 PM ----------

GoI should increase this to 6400 per month for a family of four:
2500-3000 on Food.
2000-2500 on Rent.
1400-1500 on Others(incl.Health,Edu etc)

I think its better to cut all subsidies and go for direct cash transfers.

 

[gulte]

GoI should increase this to 6400 per month for a family of four:
2500-3000 on Food.
2000-2500 on Rent.
1400-1500 on Others(incl.Health,Edu etc)

Are you out of your mind, lets go by your figures 6400 per/month for a family of four. Then it will be 77000 for an year. Lets assume that 100 Million families under BPL(conservative estimate), then it will come to 7.7 Trillion rupees. Given that our economy is around 76.5 Trillion rupees with 18 % Tax/GDP ratio, taxes collected are around 13.7 Trillion rupees. If 60% of Govt income goes to welfare, then you shouldn't complaint about pot holes, lack of quality higher education, lack of weapons if some one attacks our sovereignty etc.

 

[jdme]

Shocking it may sound but they are constantly upping the "limit". Hence the increase in poverty numbers. Once poverty drops below 25% using this "marker", they will update the cut of line again and number of poor will shoot up.

 

[IFB]

I thought Sri Lanka has the lowest cost of living in south asia, but it seems India has the cheapest rates.

In Sri Lanka...

Electricity bill around 3000 LKR
Water bill around 600 LKR
ADSL line around 2000 LKR
home phone bill 2000 LKR
Peo TV bill around 1000 LKR
LP Gas 12.5 kg around 2000 LKR
Mobile phone bill around 2000 LKR

so all monthly bills - 12600 LKR

This what we pay in our village :

Electricity bill around : 300-700Rs/month
Water bill around : What is that?
ADSL line around : Rs 750 for 512kbps UL connection
home phone bill : cant say
Peo TV bill around : Rs 260 for ma tatasky DTH
LP Gas 12.5 kg :Rs 370
Mobile phone bill : again it varies with individual cant say

You can also stock up on rice when they are smuggled out of the government godown....you can get 50KG of rice for just Rs 250 .

 

[aimarraul]

it seems that india has found a new way to reduce poverty

 

[below_freezing]

No doubt there is a gap between India and China. Not GDP number, I mean by the stats you provided, there seems to be a bigger gap between the rich and poor in India and higher percentage of Indians might not have enough food.

Food in China is not cheap though, compared to the average income. I was a bit shocked whenI saw the price in grocery stores. It was not much cheaper than in Canada. However, labor cost or service is still much cheaper, sometimes to a ridiculous extent I can't believe.

Actually I noticed similar things in Romania and Colombia as well, probably worse. Seems like that they're paying higher percentage of income for food than in China. Another thing I noticed is that middle class Chinese family in tier 2 cities, like ChongQing and Chengdu, almost all have LCD TV, car (some are imported brand like Toyoto or Volkswagen, some are cheaper domestic brand) and nice apartment. While in Romania, the don't seem to have more disposable income to spend. Quite a few people complained about joining Euro zone made their life more expensive than before.

The most important thing for the governments should be always raise the life quality of their people, lift the poor out of poverty, provide better education etc. GDP isn't everything, China, India, Pakistan all have long way to go. Stop fight or fight less, and make better life.

true. let me tell you this, right now, even in rural villages, the TVs are all LCDs. 20 years ago, you'd be lucky to have a TV. 30 years ago, an electric fan is a luxury.

GDP is indeed not the most important. China's GDP is actually quite low for the standard of living that we have, except food. Food in China is very expensive, due to government subsidies to farmers and a highly inefficient distribution system.

 

[Skyline]

This what we pay in our village :

Electricity bill around : 300-700Rs/month
Water bill around : What is that?
ADSL line around : Rs 750 for 512kbps UL connection
home phone bill : cant say
Peo TV bill around : Rs 260 for ma tatasky DTH
LP Gas 12.5 kg :Rs 370
Mobile phone bill : again it varies with individual cant say

You can also stock up on rice when they are smuggled out of the government godown....you can get 50KG of rice for just Rs 250 .

water supply/piped line monthly bill for water usage.

10KG rice pack is between 700-800 LKR

 

[kingkobra]

I thought Sri Lanka has the lowest cost of living in south asia, but it seems India has the cheapest rates.

In Sri Lanka...

Electricity bill around 3000 LKR
Water bill around 600 LKR
ADSL line around 2000 LKR
home phone bill 2000 LKR
Peo TV bill around 1000 LKR
LP Gas 12.5 kg around 2000 LKR
Mobile phone bill around 2000 LKR

so all monthly bills - 12600 LKR

Electricity bill around:800-1200 Rs..
Water bill around :450 Rs society maintenance which includes the water bill,cleaning,property tax etc
ADSL line around:3300 Rs. 5 Mbps unlimited for 6 months so Rs.550 per month(hathway)
home phone bill:not above 500 RS.
TV bill around:cable Tv which is really cheap in my city for 50 Rs per month.(in other cities it is less than Rs.200)
LPG Gas 12.5 kg around 410 Rs.
Mobile phone bill around:mobile phone is very very cheap so not more than 200 Rs.

 

[harshad]

why not cap the spending of mp's and mla's to 32 rupees per day