Economic Inequality in India and Pakistan

Top 1% of Indians own 58% of wealth in India, according to a recent report by Oxfam as published by Wall Street Journal.  The report said the global average for wealth ownership of the top 1% is 51%.

Source: Oxfam

The income and wealth concentration in the hands of the richest top 1% skews the average per capita incomes and makes the material well-being of average citizen look better than it is.  The best way to measure how well or poorly an average citizen is doing is to look at the median income and wealth, not the average or mean. The median income reflects how much the person at the 50th percentile of the income distribution earns, giving us a better picture of the well-being of a “typical” individual in a given country. Similarly, median wealth represents how much wealth a person at the 50th percentile of the wealth distribution has accumulated.

Median Incomes in South Asia:

Centre for Global Development has estimated 2014 median incomes of countries around the world. Here's what it reported for India and Pakistan:

 Pakistan: Median Income per capita: $,1204.50, Median Household Income: $6,022.50 Mean (Average) per capita $4,811.31

India Rural: Median per capita $930.75 Median Household $4,653.75 Mean (Average) per capita $5,700.72

India Urban: Median per capita $1295.75 Median Household $6,478.75 Mean(Average) per capita: $5,700.72

It shows that India's urban median income is slightly higher than Pakistan's median income. However, India's rural median income is significantly lower than Pakistan's.  It should be noted that 70% of India's population lives in rural areas, much higher than Pakistan's 61%, according to the World Bank.

Using India's Census figures of 30% urban and 70% rural population, the median per capita income for all of India works out to $1,040.25, about 15.8% lower than Pakistan's median per capita income of $1,204.50.

Source: Bloomberg

Median Wealth in South Asia:

Average Pakistani adult is 20% richer than an average Indian adult and the median wealth of a Pakistani adult is 120% higher than that of his or her Indian counterpart, according to Credit Suisse Wealth Report 2016. Average household wealth in Pakistan has grown 2.1% while it has declined 0.8% in India since the end of last year.

Source: Credit Suisse Wealth Report 2016

Here are the key statistics reported by Credit Suisse:

Total Household Wealth Mid-2016 :

India $3,099 billion Pakistan $524 billion

Wealth per adult:

India Year End 2000 Average $2,036 Median $498.00

Pakistan Year End 2000 Average $2,399 Median $1,025

India Mid-2016 Average $3,835 Median $608

Pakistan Mid-2016 Average $4,595 Median $1,788

Average wealth per adult in Pakistan is $760 more than in India or about 20% higher.

Median wealth per adult in Pakistan is $1,180 more than in India or about 120% higher

Summary:


Median per capita income in Pakistan is 15.8% higher than in India, according to the World Bank PovcalNet figures. Median per capita wealth in Pakistan in Pakistan is 120% more than in India, according to Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2016.  The median figures reflect the financial situation of the people at the 50th percentile of the income and wealth distributions in each country.

The income and wealth concentration in the hands of the richest top 1% skews the average per capita incomes and makes the material well-being of average citizen look better than it is.  The best way to measure how well or poorly an average citizen is doing is to look at the median income and wealth, not the average or mean. Median income and wealth figures in South Asia show that average Pakistanis are better off economically than their counterparts in India.

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Comment by Riaz Haq on January 18, 2017 at 5:32pm

The Income Of The Average Indian Is Significantly Lower Than The Average Income Of India

http://swarajyamag.com/economy/the-income-of-the-average-indian-is-...

"As Charles Wheelan writes in Naked Statistics: “The mean, or average, turns out to have some problems in that regard, namely, that it is prone to distortion by “outliers”, which are observations farther from the center.”

So basically, the Ambanis, Adanis, Birlas and Tatas, of the world, essentially India’s rich, push up the average income of India i.e. the per capita income. As Wheelan writes: “The average income...could be heavily skewed by the megarich.”

In this scenario, the average income does not give us a correct picture. Further, it is safe to say, that the income of the average Indian is lower than the average income of India.

At this point it is important to introduce another term i.e. the median. As Wheelan writes: “The median is the point that divides a distribution in half, meaning that half of the observation lie above the median and half lie below.”

Hence, the median income is the income of the average Indian. Given this, the median income is the right representation of the income of the average Indian. This is because the rich outliers (the Ambanis, the Adnanis, the Tatas and the Birlas) are taken into account. Data from World Bank shows that the top 10 percent of India’s population makes 30 percent of the total income. And this pushes up the per capita income."

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 20, 2017 at 10:33am

Pakistan’s per capita income has marginally grown to $1,561 but targets to increase investment and savings – the two most critical economic indicators after national output goal – have been missed again during the outgoing fiscal year.

The government’s inability to increase investment as percentage of total size of national economy is probably the biggest failure after it failed to achieve outgoing fiscal year’s gross domestic product (GDP) target of 5.5%.

Per capita income: A Pakistani now makes $1,513 a year

Missing of the targets on savings, investment and GDP growth also puts a question mark over the acclaimed structural reforms introduced under the $6.2 billion International Monetary Fund bailout package.

Pakistan has one of the lowest investment and savings rates in the region and the world, obstructing progress towards a sustainable and inclusive economic growth path.

Slow progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor due to lack of political vision and usual bureaucratic inefficiency also pulled back investments.

Sources said in dollar terms the per capita income has grown by only 2.9% to $1,561 – up $44 in the outgoing fiscal year 2015-16. Despite a marginal increase in per capita income, the country continues to be in the league of low middle-income countries. It needs to enhance per capita income to $4,000 to be labelled a middle-income country.

Pakistan faces Rs3.3 trillion revenue black hole, says IMF

In rupee terms, there was a 5.8% growth in per capita income that increased to Rs162,568.

To arrive at the per capita income figure, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics – the government’s statistical arm – estimated about 2% growth in the country’s population that reached 193.56 million this year. It then divided the total national income with the number of people and arrived at per capita income of $1,561.

In absolute terms, the PBS has estimated addition of about five million people in a single year.

Like the previous year, in the current fiscal year too the federal government has again failed to deliver on the two most critical economic indicators. It missed the targets of investment and savings with wide margins.

The investment-to-GDP ratio slipped to 15.2% against the target of 17.7%, said the sources. The ratio was lower than last year’s revised rate of 15.5%. Savings remained almost stagnant at 14.5% of GDP, shy of the target of 16.8%.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1108913/par-performance-pakistans-per-c...

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 20, 2017 at 10:35am

Reports prepared by the World Bank (WB) have revealed that the per capita income of Indians is often more than the per capita income of the average Pakistani.

Using the globally accepted Purchasing Power Parity or PPP method to analyze and compare the per-capita income of various nations, reports prepared by the World Bank found that every Indian earns around USD 5,630, while a Pakistani earns around USD 5,090.

A closer look at the statistical evidence provided in these WB reports reveals that one U.S. dollar is equal Pakistani Rupees 10.4.56, while one U.S. dollar is equivalent to Indian Rs.67, and therefore, an Indian earns 54,000 Pakistani rupees more than his Pakistani counterpart or Indian Rs 36,100 more than what a Pakistani individual earns in a year.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/indians-per...

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 25, 2017 at 10:34pm

#India has been a post-truth society for years. #Modi #Trump #alternativefacts http://theconversation.com/india-has-been-a-post-truth-society-for-... … via @_TCGlobal

India: home of post-truth politics

That was the global context of post-truth politics and its advent in the West. But as the US and UK wake up to this new era, it’s worth noting that the world’s largest democracy has been living in a post-truth world for years.

From education to health care and the economy, particularly its slavish obsession with GDP, India can be considered a world leader in post-truth politics.

India’s post-truth era cannot be traced to a single year – its complexities go back generations. But the election of Narendra Modi in 2014 can be marked as a significant inflection point. Ever since, the country has existed under majoritarian rule with widely reported discrimination against minorities.

India’s version of post-truth is different to its Western counterparts due to the country’s socioeconomic status; its per capita nominal income is less than 3% of that of the US (or 4% of that of the UK). Still, post-truth is everywhere in India.

It can be seen in our booming Wall Street but failing main streets, our teacher-less schools and our infrastructure-less villages. We have the ability to influence the world without enjoying good governance or a basic living conditions for so many at home.

Modi’s government has shown how key decisions can be completely divorced from the everyday lives of Indian citizens, but spun to seem like they have been made for their benefit. Nowhere is this more evident than with India’s latest demonetisation drive, which plunged the country into crisis, against the advice of its central bank, and hit poorest people the hardest.


Despite the levels of extreme poverty in India, when it comes to social development, the cult of growth dominates over the development agenda, a trend that Modi has exacerbated, but that started with past governments.

The dichotomy of India’s current post-truth experience was nicely summed up by Arun Shourie, an influential former minister from Modi’s own party. He disagrees with the prime minister, just as many Republicans share sharp differences of opinion with President Trump.

Shourie said the policies of the current administration were equal to his predecessors’ policies, plus a cow.

------------
...there is an argument to be made that the US and the UK have been living in denial of facts and evidence for years. In 2003, after all, both the countries went to war in Iraq over the false notion that Saddam Hussein was harbouring weapons of mass destruction.
---------------
Major social change does not happen within the space of a year. Yet, to a large number of observers around the world, the “post-truth” phenomenon seemed to emerge from nowhere in 2016.

Two key events of 2016 shaped our understanding of the post-truth world: one was in June, when Britain voted in favour of leaving the European Union. The other was in November, when political maverick Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States of America. Trump’s administration spent the third day of his presidency speaking of “alternative facts”, and making false claims about the size of the crowds that had attended his inauguration.

For the rest of the world, the importance of both Trump and Brexit can best be gauged by understanding that they happened in the USA and in the UK. The UK was the key driving force of the world from the 19th century until the second world war, the US has been ever since. The US and the UK often have shared a similar point of view on many global geopolitical developments, as strategic allies or by virtue of their “special relationship”.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 1, 2017 at 10:31am

#Pakistan’s Middle Class Soars as Stability Returns - WSJ. #economy #middleclass
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistans-middle-class-soars-as-stabil...

Pakistan, often in the headlines for terrorism, coups and poverty, has developed something else in recent years: a burgeoning middle class that is fueling economic growth and bolstering a fragile democracy.

The transformation is evident in Jamil Abbas, a tailor of women’s clothing whose 15 years of work has paid off with two children in private school and small luxuries like a refrigerator and a washing machine.

For companies like the Swiss food maker Nestlé SA, such hungry consumers signal a sea-change.

“Pakistan is entering the hot zone,” said Bruno Olierhoek, Nestlé’s CEO for Pakistan, saying the country appears to be at a tipping point of exploding demand. Nestlé’s sales in Pakistan have doubled in the past five years to $1 billion.

Although often overshadowed by giant neighbors India and China, Pakistan is the sixth most-populated country, with 200 million people. And now, major progress in the country’s security, economic and political environments have helped create the stability for a thriving middle class.

An unpublished study last year that measured living standards, from Pakistani market research firm Aftab Associates, found that 38% of the country is middle class, while a further 4% is upper class. That’s a combined 84 million people—roughly equivalent to the entire populations of Germany or Turkey.

Such households are likely to have a motorcycle, color TV, refrigerator, washing machine and at least one member who has completed school up to the age of 16, the study found. Official figures show that the proportion of households that own a motorcycle soared to 34% in 2014 from 4% in 1991, and a washing machine to 47% from 13% over that same period. These trends are also attracting international business.



In December, Royal FrieslandCampina NV, a Dutch dairy company, paid $461 million to buy control of Engro Foods, a Pakistani packaged milk producer in a country where most milk is sold unpasteurized from open milk containers.

“What we see is consumer spending is rising and a middle class coming up,” said Hans Laarakker, Engro’s new chief executive.

Late last year, China’s Shanghai Electric Power agreed to pay $1.8 billion for a majority of Karachi’s electric supply company; Turkish electrical appliance maker Arçelik paid $258 million for a Pakistani appliance maker, Dawlance, saying Pakistan has an “increasingly prosperous working and middle class”; and French car maker Renault SA said it was seeking to set up a plant in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, during the past three years, deaths from terrorist attacks have fallen by two-thirds, as the army battles jihadists. Economic growth reached an eight-year high of nearly 5% in the past financial year, and China has begun a multibillion-dollar infrastructure investment program. The Karachi stock market rose 46% last year and continues to soar.

------

Although often overshadowed by giant neighbors India and China, Pakistan is the sixth most-populated country, with 200 million people. And now, major progress in the country’s security, economic and political environments have helped create the stability for a thriving middle class.

An unpublished study last year that measured living standards, from Pakistani market research firm Aftab Associates, found that 38% of the country is middle class, while a further 4% is upper class. That’s a combined 84 million people—roughly equivalent to the entire populations of Germany or Turkey.

Such households are likely to have a motorcycle, color TV, refrigerator, washing machine and at least one member who has completed school up to the age of 16, the study found. Official figures show that the proportion of households that own a motorcycle soared to 34% in 2014 from 4% in 1991, and a washing machine to 47% from 13% over that same period. These trends are also attracting international business.

In December, Royal FrieslandCampina NV, a Dutch dairy company, paid $461 million to buy control of Engro Foods, a Pakistani packaged milk producer in a country where most milk is sold unpasteurized from open milk containers.

“What we see is consumer spending is rising and a middle class coming up,” said Hans Laarakker, Engro’s new chief executive.

Late last year, China’s Shanghai Electric Power agreed to pay $1.8 billion for a majority of Karachi’s electric supply company; Turkish electrical appliance maker Arçelik paid $258 million for a Pakistani appliance maker, Dawlance, saying Pakistan has an “increasingly prosperous working and middle class”; and French car maker Renault SA said it was seeking to set up a plant in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, during the past three years, deaths from terrorist attacks have fallen by two-thirds, as the army battles jihadists. Economic growth reached an eight-year high of nearly 5% in the past financial year, and China has begun a multibillion-dollar infrastructure investment program. The Karachi stock market rose 46% last year and continues to soar.

The 2013 election marked the first democratic transition from one elected government to another. The big winners were two parties of the middle class: the Pakistan Muslim League-N of Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. Mr. Sharif formed the government, appealing to a business constituency with his focus on private sector-led economic growth. Mr. Khan’s previously marginal party, which has the biggest proportion of college graduate voters, campaigned on improving public services and fighting graft.

Ijaz Gilani, chairman of pollster Gallup Pakistan, said that the salaried middle class will pressure the government to improve poor public services. “You cannot move forward with weak governance, and bypassing the state, by relying on individual empowerment alone,” Mr. Gilani said.

Pakistan experienced a “staggering fall” in poverty from 2002 to 2014, according the World Bank, halving to 29.5% of the population. That period saw a spurt of economic growth in the early part, a takeoff in property values, a surge in the money that Pakistanis working overseas send home (now $20 billion a year), while the government also started an income subsidy for the poorest.

Still, the millions of Pakistanis living below the poverty line endure misery in a country with the world’s third-highest rate of childhood stunted growth because of chronic malnutrition.

During roughly that same period, 90% of the increase in national consumption came from the middle class, found a study by Jawaid Ghani, a professor at the Karachi School for Business and Leadership.

The living standards of the middle class in Pakistan and other developing nations is modest by Western standards, and there is no agreed or official definition. A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasts that the bulk of the growth in the middle class in the years ahead will come from Asia, which will account for two thirds of the global middle class by 2030.

The tailoring shop of Jamil Abbas, back turned to the camera, in Islamabad recently.
The tailoring shop of Jamil Abbas, back turned to the camera, in Islamabad recently. PHOTO: QASIM NAUMAN

By contrast, the American middle class is shrinking: The proportion of U.S. adults living in middle-income households fell to 50% in 2015 from 61% in 1971, as the poor and the rich segments grew, according to the Pew Research Center.

In the developing world, the ability to purchase durable goods such as motorcycles—which itself can lead to new opportunities in employment, education and leisure—is generally viewed as an indicator of a middle class lifestyle. Motorcycle purchases soared in Pakistan to 2 million a year now from 95,000 in 2000, leading Honda Motor Co. to double its production capacity there. Buyers of Honda’s cheapest motorcycle typically earn between just $200 and $300 a month, which would put them well below the poverty line in the West, but here that gives them disposable income.

“All these big companies globally, if they’re not looking at Pakistan, need to look at Pakistan, because it’s a huge consumption economy emerging,” said Saquib Shirazi, chief executive of Honda’s Pakistan joint venture.

At his tailor shop, run from a basement on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad, 39-year-old Mr. Abbas makes $350 a month from a business that employs four other people. That’s enough to rent a two-room home and buy a motorcycle 18 months ago that cut his commute to work from two hours to 30 minutes.

“I’m sure there are many others like me who are trying to work hard and improve their lives,” Mr. Abbas said.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 1, 2017 at 2:21pm

5 Takeaways from India’s Budget

http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2017/02/01/5-takeaways-from-indias-bud...

India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley managed a fine balancing act in his budget announcement Wednesday, increasing spending to stimulate growth while at the same time ensuring the government’s financial health isn’t weakened.

Investors reacted positively to his announcements, as the benchmark stock index climbed as much as 1.8% after he presented the budget to Parliament.

Measures to boost a variety of sectors and strengthen the government’s efforts to fight corruption were unveiled. The focus, however, was on the country’s villages and small towns where job losses and hardships due to a cash shortage caused by the sudden withdrawal of 86% of currency have been felt the most.

We take a look at five big measures that were part of the budget:
1 FEB 2017 8:07AMBY Anant Vijay Kala
1 Relief for Farmers

Pressure was high on Mr. Jaitley to provide relief to people in India’s vast countryside, where farmers and contract workers employed on small wages had faced the brunt of a cash shortage caused by the currency withdrawal in November. Mr. Jaitley didn’t disappoint them.

The money that the government plans to spend on rural development next year has been increased by almost a quarter to 1.87 trillion rupees ($27.6 billion). The target of loans that banks are mandated to give to farmers has also been raised to a record 10 trillion rupees next year from 9 trillion rupees that was budgeted for the current year.
2 More Spending on Infrastructure

India’s crumbling infrastructure is often cited as one of the biggest hurdles in the way of higher growth rates. According to government estimates, as much as $1 trillion is needed over the next few years to overhaul existing facilities and add new ports, roads and airports.

The latest budget earmarks about 4 trillion rupees to be spent on infrastructure. That is 10% higher than the 3.58 trillion rupees spent this year.
3 Tax Cuts

Taxpayers in India, including companies, got some relief. The government halved the tax rate on incomes between 250,000 rupees and 500,000 rupees to 5%. Although the move is expected to cost the exchequer 155 billion rupees, it would come as welcome news to taxpayers who have been seeing their purchasing power erode due to high inflation.

Companies with turnover of up to 500 million rupees also saw their tax reduced to 25% from 30%. The government said such companies form 96% of the ones filing returns.
4 New Rules on Funding of Political Parties

The government expanded its fight against corruption to political parties, which are infamous for a lack of transparency in their sources of funding. A cap of 2,000 rupees has been placed on cash donations, which are often used by donors to hide their identity. The government also proposed changes to regulations aimed at enabling the issue of so-called electoral bonds for receiving donations.
5 Foreign Investors Weren't Left Out

The government has decided to disband a body that examined large foreign-investment proposals, to make it easier for overseas investors who want to spend money into India. Most such investors now won’t have to face the country’s bureaucratic red tape that led to delays. Those wanting to invest in India will now be permitted to do so unhindered, provided they inform the central bank.

The government also promised more measures to ease the rules for some key sectors where restrictions on overseas investments still apply.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 15, 2017 at 11:57am

#Tesco products launched in #Karachi #Pakistan for sale at Alpha Supermarkets | Business - http://Geo.tv https://www.geo.tv/latest/131228-Tesco-products-launched-in-Pakistan

The launch of Tesco Label products at Alpha Supermarkets in Pakistan was announced by the British High Commissioner Thomas Drew and Limestone Private Limited at the British Deputy High Commission in Karachi.

According to a statement issued by British Deputy High Commission here on Wednesday, the Tesco PLC is one of the world’s biggest companies and is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer with stores in 12 countries across Asia and Europe.

Tesco products will soon be available at Alpha Supermarkets in Pakistan including food and nonfood items in three categories: Tesco Goodness, Tesco Finest and Tesco Everyday.

British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Thomas Drew, said on the occasion that ‘UK brands- especially those as big as Tesco’ have a real advantage in Pakistan, as British brands are so recognisable already to the many people in Pakistan who have visited the UK.

This is a particularly important year for this to be happening in Pakistan, as we are celebrating 70 years of UK-Pakistan relations.

While we will, of course, be remembering all the things that have linked us over the last 70 years, we are just as focused on the future of our relationship. At the heart of this will be increased trade between our two countries and I hope Tesco’s launch is just the start of a new era of British-Pakistani trade’.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 20, 2017 at 1:42pm

#China's poor provinces catching up with rich provinces but #poor states in #ndia falling further behind rich states

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/in-india-diverging-incomes-de...

Poorer countries are catching up with richer countries, the poorer Chinese provinces are catching up with the richer ones, but in India the less developed States are not catching up; instead they are, on average, falling behind the richer States. Internationally, growth rates of per capita GDP widened at least since the 1820s with poorer countries growing slower than richer countries, leading to the basic divide between advanced and developing countries characterised as “Divergence, Big Time” by Prof. Lant Pritchett of Harvard University. However, since 1980 this long-term trend was reversed and poorer countries started catching up with richer ones. In stark contrast, there continues to be divergence within India or an aggravation of regional inequality.

What is especially striking is how convergence has evolved over time. In the 1990s, convergence patterns were not dissimilar (Figure 2) across the world, China and India with either weak convergence or divergence. But things really changed for both the world and China in the 2000s; however they did not change for India. This was despite the promise that less developed States such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had started improving their relative performance. But the data show that those developments were neither strong nor durable enough to change the underlying picture of divergence or growing inequality. The findings are similar when we use consumption per capita instead of GSDP per capita.

Therefore, the evidence so far suggests that in India, catch-up remains elusive. The opposing results in India versus those in China and internationally pose a deep puzzle. Convergence happens essentially through trade and through mobility of factors of production. If a State/country is poor, the returns to capital must be high and should be able to attract capital and labour, thereby raising its productivity and enabling catch-up with richer States/countries. Trade, based on comparative advantage, is really a surrogate for the movement of underlying factors of production as economist Paul Samuelson pointed out early on. A less developed country that has abundant labour and scarce capital will export labour-intensive goods (a surrogate for exporting unskilled labour) and import capital-intensive goods (a surrogate for attracting capital).

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 27, 2017 at 5:13pm

#Pakistan Is Getting Ahead Of #India, Again via @forbes #StockMarket #EconomicFreedom

https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2017/02/27/pakistan...

After getting ahead of India in equity market performance, Pakistan is getting ahead of India in another indicator: economic freedom ranking.

That’s according to the recent 2017 Index of Economic Freedom ranking, which places Pakistan in 141st position and India at 143th.

Published by the Heritage Foundation, the Economic Freedom report measures such things as trade freedom, business freedom, investment freedom, and the degree of property rights protection in 186 countries.

Pakistan’s lead over India in this ranking may not be big deal to most observers, as it is too narrow to be meaningful. Besides, both countries are ranking too close to the bottom.

Still, Pakistan’s ranking has been consistently outperforming India's in recent years.

Does it really matter to anyone?

Yes, to equity market investors. Gains in economic freedom ranking are usually associated with higher economic growth rates and higher equity markets. And the superior performance of Pakistan’s market over that of India’s might as well be a reflection of it.

----------

Here is a quote from the Pakistan report. “Pakistan has pursued reforms to improve its entrepreneurial environment and facilitate private-sector development. The financial sector has undergone modernization and restructuring.” 

And a quote from the Indian report. “The state maintains an extensive presence in many areas through public sector enterprises. A restrictive and burdensome regulatory environment discourages the entrepreneurship that could provide broader private-sector growth.”

Simply put, while Pakistan is trying to place economic growth in the hands of entrepreneurs, India insists to place economic growth in the hands of government bureaucrats.

That’s certainly good news for the future of Pakistan’s economy and equity markets.

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 10, 2017 at 8:22am
India is far ahead of Pakistan in more ways than I can count :-) 
Here are some: 
1. India leads the world in open defecation....in absolute numbers and percentages. 
2. India leads the world in child marriages....in absolute numbers and percentages. 
3. India has more poor, hungry and illiterate people than any other country in the world. In  percentage terms, the poverty rate in India is 2X higher than in Pakistan. 
4. More farmers have killed themselves in India than any other country in the world. 
5. Top 1% of Indians own 58% of India's wealth, 2nd only to Russia's 70%.
6. India has a mass murderer Modi as its elected leader. 
7. India has more slaves than any other country in the world. 
8. India has had more anti-minority riots than any other country in the world. 
9. India is only one of only two countries where Apartheid is still rampant....the other is Israel. 
10. There are more active insurgencies in India than any other country in the world. 
And yet, India is a "secular democracy"!!!!!
All of the above are easily verifiable facts from credible sources which track such data.

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