Poverty in India on purchasing power parity. According to United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDG) programme 270 millions or 21.9% people out of 1.2 billion of Indians lived below poverty line of $1.25 in 2011-2012. From late 19th century through early 20th century, under British colonial rule, poverty in India intensified, peaking in the 1920s. Famines and diseases killed millions each time. After India gained its independence in 1947, mass deaths from famines were prevented. Rapid economic growth since 1991, has led to sharp reductions in extreme poverties in India. However, those above poverty line live a fragile economic life. As per the
Colonial surplus Colonial surplus A colonial surplus is a way of measuring the effects of the relationship between colony and metropolis. A colony, in the sense of a region being ruled by a foreign overseas power, was in a different position from that of an independent country. As Maddison remarked some time ago of India, ‘The major burden of foreign rule arose from the fact that the British raj was a regime of expatriates.’ Such expatriates generate a flow of funds out of the colony. Something similar would have occurred in Latin America during the post-Spanish period of ‘informal rule’ by British