TIMEasia Magazine: The Respect They Deserve

TIMEasia Magazine: The Respect They Deserve: "The Respect They Deserve

India's rich are doing well, and good for them—but the growing middle class is the real story

By Gurcharan Das

Posted Monday, November 29, 2004; 20:00 HKT
There will always be rich people and poor. but as Aristotle once said, a good society is one where the middle class outnumbers everyone else. Yes, India has its share of billionaires, and, according to the government, a quarter of its people live on less than $1 a day. But the most striking characteristic of today's India is the explosive growth in its middle class.

For the past 23 years India's GDP has grown at an average annual rate of 6%, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. The growth rate may have been lower than that of China's, but it is double that achieved by the West during the Industrial Revolution. As a result, India's middle class has more than tripled in size to 250 million people. While the number of rich has certainly grown, about 1% of the poor have crossed the poverty line each year. Pervasive upward mobility may help explain why India is reasonably free of social resentment."