India still a poor country, admits government
19 Dec 2012
India continues to be a developing country and lags far behind several countries in per capita income. This is due to various factors including different levels of development, and various other factors, minister of state for parliamentary affairs and planning Rajeev Shukla told the Lok Sabha today.
India's per capita GDP on purchasing power parity (PPP) basis was $3,403 a year in 2010 and is estimated at $3,662.69 in 2011 and $3,851.31 (Rs21,1360) in 2012, he said.
"Yes ... India continues to be a developing economy," Shukla said in a written reply to a question on whether the country is lagging behind in per capita income.
The minister said the reasons for differences in the per capita income of different nations include the levels of development and other factors such as natural resource endowments, economic policies, political stability, differences in skills and technologies, population level, etc.
The Central Statistics Office has been compiling estimates of rural and urban break up of per capita Net Domestic Product (NDP) for the base years of National Accounts Statistics (NAS) series, Shukla said.
"The latest base year is 2004-05. The per capita income at current prices for the year 2004-05 is estimated at Rs16,414 a year in rural areas and Rs44,172 in urban areas," he said.
The per capita net national income rose by 5.2 per cent while wholesale price index based inflation was at 8.9 per cent in 2011-12.
In 2010-11, per capita net national income grew by 6.4 per cent against a WPI inflation rise of 9.6 per cent. In
