December 3, 2008: World Bank estimates 456 million people — just over 40 percent of India’s population of 1.2 billion — now live on less than $1.25 per day, a sum recognised as the international poverty line.

Almost half of India’s children are malnourished. 1000 die every day from diahorrea and hundreds of millions have no access to proper sanitation. These figures provide a grim counterpoint to the glitzy high-rises and designer shopping malls that have sprung up throughout the country’s major cities.