India Has One Third Of World's Poorest, Says World Bank.

One in three of the world's poorest people are living in India, the world's second-fastest growing economy, according to a new study by the World Bank.

(Telegraph) - While new figures show that the number of those in extreme poverty around the world - surviving on 82 pence per day or less - has declined significantly, India now has a greater share of the world's poorest than it did thirty years ago. Then it was home to one fifth of the world's poorest people, but today it accounts for one-third - 400 million.

The study, The State of the Poor: Where are the Poor and Where are the Poorest?, found the number of extremely poor people had declined from half the world's population in 1981 to one fifth in 2010, but voiced concern at its increase in Sub-Saharan Africa and continuing high level in India.

World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said while the overall decline was "remarkable progress", the remaining 1.2 billion people living in extreme poverty was "a stain on our collective conscience." His colleague, World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu, who until last year was economic advisor to Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, said the figures called for the world's wealthier countries to do more.

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