Poverty and Development

Bengaluru, India — India lifted nearly 500 million out of poverty between 2011 and 2023, with extreme poverty dropping from 27.1 percent to 2.6 percent in the world’s most populous nation during the same period, according to a new report by the World Bank.

The only other parallel in poverty reduction on this scale is China, which lifted more than 800 million people out of extreme poverty — though that was over a period of 40 years.

Yet despite the substantial fall in poverty in India — home to 1.4 billion people — the income and wealth inequality gap has widened significantly since it opened up its economy in the early 1990s.

According to the 2026 World Inequality Report, inequality in India remains among the highest in the world.

We take a look at how India managed to almost eradicate extreme poverty, and at the contrast between that accomplishment and the deep economic inequality that remains in the world’s most populous nation:

What does the World Bank data say?

Based on an extreme poverty threshold of $3 a day, the World Bank said extreme poverty in India declined from 27.1 percent to 2.6 percent between 2011 and 2023.

Extreme poverty is defined as the minimum amount of money needed to afford basic essentials such as food, water, shelter and clothing.

Estimating poverty metrics based on three official household surveys, the Bank also said that an estimated 496 million people have been lifted out of poverty as the share of India’s population living below the lower middle-income poverty threshold of $4.20 a day fell from 57.7 percent to 16.1 percent.

The authors of the report, led by World Bank’s South Asia poverty economist Ayago Wambile, wrote that poverty in India is “projected to continue declining, albeit more gradually with the poverty rate at the $4.20/day line expected to fall from 14.2 percent in 2026 to 12.1 percent by 2028.”

“This progress was mainly driven by strong consumption growth, rising employment, especially among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies,” they added.

How significant is India’s poverty reduction?

India lifting nearly 500 million out of poverty in 12 years has been lauded as “remarkable progress” by the World Bank. It added that the downward trend represents “one of the fastest poverty declines in the world.”

To determine India’s poverty rates, the World Bank used Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES) which were conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), an Indian government body.

A 2022 report, jointly produced by the World Bank and the Chinese Finance Ministry, said that China had lifted 800 million people out of poverty, but it took 40 years to achieve.

Last month, the World Bank also raised its economic growth forecast for India to 7.1 percent.

In a post on Instagram on Sunday, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the country’s progress in tackling poverty. “A historic fall in poverty. A generational rise in opportunity,” he said.

Last November, the southern state of Kerala, which has been ruled either by the centrist Congress party or a coalition of communist parties since independence, became the first in the country to officially declare itself free from extreme poverty. Kerala has the best education and health statistics of major Indian states.

Santosh Mehrotra, a development economist formerly in India’s planning commission, and currently a visiting professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, noted that India is the only low-middle-income country among G20 nations, which are otherwise upper-middle- or high-income nations.

“The absolute number of the poor in our country is still the highest in the world for sheer size of population. So therefore, if we are going to genuinely reduce the incidence of poverty and more importantly, the absolute number of the poor, then it makes a huge difference globally,” he told Al Jazeera.

Coming from the World Bank, the credibility of the analysis that has concluded India’s success in reducing poverty so majorly is also above question, said Surjit Bhalla, economist an a former executive director at the International Monetary Fund. Any data that comes from the World Bank, he said, is the “gold standard”.

He said the institution carries out a poverty analysis for every country using a per capita consumption level that is normalised globally by invoking purchasing power parity.

How did India dramatically cut poverty?

There are no easy answers.

But economists point to a series of factors and programmes that might have contributed to India’s success in pulling record numbers of people out of poverty.

Overall, poverty in India has, however, been declining since the country opened its economy in the early 1990s, when the Congress party was in power, setting the stage for more than three decades of fast economic growth. Successive governments have launched, continued or reworked a series of social welfare schemes that economists say have helped combat poverty.

Prime Minister Modi’s predecessor Manmohan Singh, for example, launched an employment scheme that guaranteed rural jobs for a minimum of 100 days per year.

Since coming to power in 2014, Modi has launched several other welfare schemes, including direct cash transfers, free rations and housing, to tackle poverty. While the Modi government has significantly diluted the rural job guarantee scheme that Singh had launched, the current administration now provides free food grains to about 800 million Indians.

Under Modi, the government has also significantly expanded the construction of toilets, especially in rural India, where open defecation has historically been common in many villages. Access to piped drinking water has risen from 17 percent of rural homes in August 2019 to more than 80 percent, according to government statistics.

“The reduced sickness from accessing safe water may have helped families earn more income,” economists Surjit Bhalla and Karan Bhasin wrote in a research paper on India’s poverty alleviation efforts for the Brookings Institution in March 2024.

Before the latest World Bank report, Bhalla — a former executive director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — and Bhasin had used Indian consumption data in early 2025 to also conclude that the country was making major gains in ending extreme poverty.

Why some economists are concerned

Despite the decline in poverty, Bhalla and Bhasin pointed in their 2025 paper that free food grains supplied by the Indian government to 800 million people only fulfilled their calorific needs. “More balanced food subsidies that are better targeted to the genuine poor will improve nutritional outcomes and would represent a better approach to food insecurity,” they wrote.

It is also unclear whether continuing to provide free food supplies indefinitely to more than half of the country’s population is sustainable for the government — and whether that programme points to deep economic distress mitigated only by state assistance.

Some economists, like Mehrotra, question why the Indian government no longer determines its own poverty level and its own estimates of the numbers of those below it.

Mehrotra said that since 2014 — when Modi came to power — the Indian government has stopped calculating its own poverty levels, instead relying entirely on World Bank estimates.

“We are a strange country in having adopted an international organisation’s poverty line as our own,” he said.

For a country as large, diverse and complex as India, he argued, a standard set by an international agency alone is not enough to capture shifting economic and consumer patterns. “For example, 10 years back everyone didn’t have phones; today even in rural areas people do. So consumption baskets [used to determine price indices and poverty levels] change over time and hence India should have done its own poverty line,” Mehrotra said.

But Bhalla pushed back against criticism of India’s use of World Bank data.

“The methodology that the World Bank uses and the estimates it comes up with are vetted by every country before the final data is published,” he told Al Jazeera. “So in this case India’s poverty analysis has been gone through by Indian scholars and the government of India. So there is no ideological basis for questioning this data.”

Jayati Ghosh, an economist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, however said that India’s healthcare and nutrition indices also remained major causes for concern. The country spends just over 1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public healthcare, ranking far behind global peers in per capita health investment and leaving public hospitals chronically underfunded and overburdened. Citizens also end up bearing the brunt of total health expenditures, a financial burden that pushes millions of Indians into poverty or debt every year.

Ghosh pointed out that real wages have stagnated in India. According to the World Bank report, while poverty has declined in India, wage disparities remain. “Median earnings among the top 10 percent of workers were about 13 times those of the bottom 10 percent in 2023,” the report said.

“These are not signs of a dynamic economy with falling poverty,” Ghosh said.

Nitin Kumar Bharti, a lecturer at the University of Western Australia, said that the World Bank’s report is encouraging. But he added that the drop in extreme poverty should not be seen as a mission accomplished, as “233 million people still live below” the $4.20 per day poverty line.

Bharti, who co-authored a study by the World Inequality Lab (WIL) on India’s income and wealth disparities published in 2024, also pointed to uneven growth within the country as a major challenge.

“Even if extreme poverty has declined, the extent of improvement in people’s overall wellbeing remains an important question,” he said.

Why is income inequality growing in India?

Bharti said that inequality is growing because gains from economic growth are distributed unevenly, with those at the top capturing a growing share of national income.

According to the 2026 World Inequality Report, India is among the world’s most unequal countries, with the top 10 percent of earners capturing about 58 percent of national income, while the bottom 50 percent receives only 15 percent.

“This is reinforced by longstanding structural inequalities — the historical caste system, unequal ownership of assets, and decades of inadequate attention to primary education have limited opportunities for disadvantaged groups,” he said.

“Insufficient public investment in quality education and healthcare — both important equalisers — means that family resources continue to shape access to skills, good jobs and economic security.”

Growing income inequality and a lack of job opportunities have triggered discontent among India’s youth, who have staged a series of nationwide protests in recent months.

According to government data released earlier this year, youth unemployment in the country stood at 13.8 percent in April 2025 and rose to 15.2 percent in March 2026.

The State of Working India 2026 report, from the Bengaluru-based Azim Premji University, noted that nearly 40 percent of young graduates aged 15–25 and roughly 20 percent of those aged 25–29 are unemployed. Among those who have a diploma or postgraduate degrees, the unemployment rate has climbed to 29.4 percent.

Does inequality matter if poverty is falling?

Yes, say economists.

“One reason is that the distribution of growth influences how effectively growth improves ordinary households’ lives. For a given level of average income, a more equal distribution generally leaves fewer people below a poverty line,” Bharti said.

“A second concern is inequality of opportunity. With rising inequality, families differ enormously in their ability to pay for education, healthcare, housing, capital to start a business or searching for a better job,” he added.

“A third concern is the concentration of economic and political influence. Large concentrations of wealth can create opportunities for a small group to shape policies and institutions in their favour.”

How can India tackle poverty and income inequality at the same time?

Dipa Sinha, a development economist at Azim Premji University, said that in order to tackle poverty and widespread inequality, India would need to prioritise some redistribution of wealth.

“India talks about poverty eradication only. But government policies need to implement a more progressive taxation policy that actually tackles inequality head-on,” she said.

“The second thing I think is very important is that the government should begin investing in universal public services like health and education. This can reduce both poverty and inequality,” she added.

Bharti said that one strong lesson for India is that sustained poverty reduction requires several policies working together.

He said China offers important lessons in economic transformation and rural income growth, pointing to its success in improving agricultural productivity, accelerating industrialisation, facilitating rural-to-urban migration, and investing heavily in both physical and human capital.

“In contrast, India’s current policy focus is more heavily tilted towards physical infrastructure, often addressing the needs of the top 10 percent rather than the bottom 90 percent,” Bharti said.

“Roads, transport, and basic infrastructure matter because they connect people to economic opportunities. But equally important are good government schools and hospitals that enable people to benefit from these opportunities.”

Bharti suggested that India’s government should pursue poverty reduction and broader economic inclusion together.

“Progressive taxation can help finance these investments while ensuring that the costs are distributed according to the ability to pay,” he added.

Berlin, Germany – Thousands of people are gathering in Berlin and more than 30 other German cities as the nation becomes the latest European country to be hit by a wave of student protests sweeping the continent.

Gathering at the Platz des 18 Maerz, on the west side of the capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate on a sunny but chilly Saturday afternoon, there was support for the young people within a mixed demographic crowd.

Anti-fascist activists smoking hand-rolled cigarettes and wearing keffiyehs waited patiently alongside students dressed in Halloween outfits, smartly dressed grandmothers donning “omas gegen rechts” (grandmothers against the right) badges, and camera crews, ahead of the 2pm (13:00 GMT) rally start.

The protests were organised by a loose alliance called Gen Z Regelt (Gen Z sorts it), and by Saturday morning, nearly 180,000 people across 34 cities had signed up to participate – with the main host cities including Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich and the capital Berlin.

Nearly 12,000 people had signed up to join in the German capital, and people were continuing to stream into the square well into the demonstration to listen to speakers in what was so far a calm afternoon in the capital.

However, at a rally in the western city of Cologne, scuffles broke out between protesters and police, who moved in to contain a march there.

The protest organisers had outlined six key issues that took them to the streets on Saturday, including the rising cost of living, education cuts and military conscription.

‘Political failure’ of government

Students told Al Jazeera that they are both angry and frustrated by ongoing funding cuts, even as the government invests heavily in the military.

Yet they also said they feel a sense of hope after seeing student protests in different parts of Europe in recent weeks.

Veronika Dinter travelled to Berlin on Friday night from Hannover to participate in the protest.

The 23-year-old political science student said that due to high living costs, she had to take on a part-time job to fund her studies.

“I wanted to start studying to develop critical thinking and learn something new, but I didn’t realise how much it would cost to do so. I think this is something a lot of people in my generation are experiencing right now,” she said.

“Funding for education and social services are being cut, while the cost of living keeps rising. Universities are struggling, institutes are closing, teachers are losing their jobs and education facilities are literally falling apart.

“This crisis is the political failure of our government. And instead of solving it, Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his rich friends are funding the military with billions of euros.”

This is a sentiment that Emma Heymann, a 24-year-old student living in Berlin, resonated with.

“Our generation feels very angry at the government because they are making these huge cuts that are affecting our quality of life here. And at the same time, they are spending billions on the military and spending money to fund the genocide in Gaza,” she said.

Protesters should be ‘listened to’

Phil Tziartzianis travelled eight hours from his hometown of Kassel to join his friend Jan Chrominski and other young people at the demonstration.

“It feels important for me to be here among other young people who feel the same way,” he said.

The protesters join a wave of demonstrations that have swept across Europe in recent weeks, including in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and Serbia.

Kilian Hampel is a senior research fellow at the Future of Work Lab at the University of Konstanz. He says other demonstrations are having an impact on young Germans.

“The frustration itself has been building for years, but this is definitely part of a wave we are seeing across Europe, and young people here are feeling that they can actually take their worries and problems to the streets,” he said. “Many of their concerns, in particular around poor educational infrastructure, are legitimate, and it’s important that they are listened to.”

The Berlin demonstration is expected to last two hours, with another one planned at 5:30pm (16:30 GMT) in a different part of the German capital.

In the past week, political figures have raised concerns about the protests turning violent.

Yet demonstrators say they see the narrative of violence distracting from the issues they want to raise.

“We urge the police to not confront our demonstrations with any kind of violence,” Dinter, the student from Hannover, said.

“We stand in solidarity with all the people around the world who are fighting for an affordable life, for more investment in the education system, and against wars and military buildup.”

Doha, Qatar – African countries are feeling the economic fallout from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, with rising fuel and fertiliser prices threatening to drive up food costs, according to trade ministers from the region and the United Nations’ top trade official.

The crisis around the Strait of Hormuz due to the United States and Israel’s war on Iran needs to be resolved “sooner rather than later”, Luz Maria de la Mora, director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), told Al Jazeera at the World Investment Forum on Monday. She warned that soaring fertiliser prices could affect harvests next year.

“Prices of fertilisers have risen dramatically … so many countries have decided to reduce the use of fertilisers, which will have an effect next year in terms of crops,” she said.

“It may have an effect on availability of food and prices of food.”

The US-Israel war on Iran has highlighted the world’s heavy reliance on the strategic waterway, through which one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas trade previously passed.

Against this backdrop, Doha hosted UNCTAD’s World Investment Forum on October 25 and 26, bringing together heads of state, policymakers, CEOs and investors to discuss global investment and sustainable development.

The Strait of Hormuz’s disruption has rippled through African economies. In Zimbabwe, rising fuel and fertiliser prices are a critical concern in a country where more than 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture, Monica Mutsvangwa, the country’s minister of women affairs, community, small and medium enterprise development, told Al Jazeera.

Uganda, another heavily agrarian economy, has also been hit, with fuel prices more than doubling, Sanjay Tanna, the country’s minister of trade, industry and cooperatives, told Al Jazeera.

The impact extends beyond the immediate cost of energy. Rising oil prices have disrupted supply chains, with effects lasting longer than anticipated, according to de la Mora.

“The effects are lasting longer than we would have expected or would have wanted,” she said.

‘Friend to all, enemy to none’

The shock has also exposed differences in how African economies weather global disruption.

Uganda’s reliance on subsistence farming has helped cushion the impact, with domestic food production offering some protection from international market volatility, said Tanna.

But the country has not been insulated from financial pressures: its currency has lost 10 percent of its value against the US dollar, the minister said. The Ugandan shilling has steadily declined since mid-2026.

For Zimbabwe, the crisis has reinforced the importance of attracting investment while maintaining economic ties across geopolitical divides.

Amid the simmering trade war between the US and China, Harare considers itself a potential partner to investors from either side, Mutsvangwa said.

“We are a friend to all and an enemy to none,” she said.

“Money has no color … If we get an investor who comes into our country, follows the rules and regulations of the country, makes his money, and Zimbabwe develops, that’s what we want.”

The official pointed to Zimbabwe’s deposits of more than 60 critical minerals, including lithium and graphite, as well as its tourism potential.

Trade in an unequal system

But attracting foreign capital remains a challenge for developing economies, with investment concentrated in a relatively small number of countries.

That concentration is “very understandable”, de la Mora said, arguing that investors need confidence that their money will generate returns.

“Capital is risk averse. Capital needs to have certainty that its investment is going to yield returns and it’s going to come to fruition,” she said.

Governments can help build that confidence through transparent institutions, the rule of law and investment in infrastructure, including reliable electricity, energy supplies and digital connectivity, she added.

The question of whether the international trading system treats all countries equally prompted a more blunt assessment from Uganda’s trade minister.

“Of course not,” said Tanna. “The world cannot be equal … It’s unfair, but we believe that, within the space that we are in, we are in a good space.”

Uganda was well placed for the future, he argued, because it produces its own food – an advantage at a time when international supply chains are under pressure.

For both Uganda and the Republic of Congo, building resilient economies also means investing in younger generations.

The Republic of Congo’s Deputy Prime Minister for Coordination, Development Infrastructure and Land Planning, Jean-Jacques Bouya, said the country had aligned its national development plan, Vision 2063, with the African Union’s broader development ambitions.

Connectivity – through electricity, digital infrastructure and physical links – is central to that strategy, he told Al Jazeera.

The Republic of Congo also wants to expand local processing so that more value from its natural resources remains within the country.

“Africa can no longer be a reservoir of raw materials, and neither can Congo – a place where raw materials are extracted, taken elsewhere, processed and then sold back to us at a much higher price. We cannot go on like this,” Bouya said.

More than 300 protesters and police were injured in the Albanian capital Tirana’s fiercest clashes in days.

Protesters have clashed with police in rallies in the Albanian capital of Tirana, with police firing tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds.

Several government buildings were attacked, dozens of demonstrators arrested, and more than 300 protesters and police injured, authorities said Saturday.

Protesters and police have routinely clashed since a significant wave of protests started in mid-October over poor conditions in schools and the cost of living in the small Balkan country.

While the protests in Tirana had calmed in recent days, Saturday’s demonstration escalated the situation again, with police deploying water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds.

Thousands of people had heeded calls from organisers for students and others around Albania to attend the rally. Various groups, including university professors, artists and opposition parties, announced their support or attendance.

The country’s Ministry of Education has become a focal point of rallies, and Saturday’s gathering saw some in the crowd throwing stones and rolling burning bins at the building.

Police had introduced heightened security around the capital on Saturday, with checks being carried out on cars heading to the city, local media reported.

Albania has seen intermittent antigovernment protests since May, when news emerged of a luxury hotel project linked to United States President Donald Trump’s family.

Protesters take aim at PM

Since then, public anger has turned into a broader push against corruption and the high cost of living, with protesters calling for the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Rama has blamed “foreign actors” for the violence and accused both Russia and Iran of driving online misinformation.

The prime minister has called for dialogue, and on Saturday red cushions were laid outside the government headquarters in a symbolic gesture for talk and dialogue. Protesters later set the cushions on fire.

Protesters have blamed the entire political class for the crisis, with some also seen holding signs decrying Rama’s opposition, centre-right leader Sali Berisha.

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans took to the streets for separate demonstrations putting pressure on governments across the EU.

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans have taken to the streets in separate, uncoordinated demonstrations to protest against the rising cost of living in their countries.

Saturday’s protests were in Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal in a wave of unrest that has put pressure on national governments across the European Union.

France experienced one of its most turbulent days of protests in decades, with over 550,000 people joining demonstrations and police facing off with protesters across the country – but it was not the only country to see significant demonstrations.

In Belgium’s capital Brussels – which has already seen weeks of protests by students against university registration fees – police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters, who they accused of launching missiles at them and setting fires.

In Liege, a smaller city east of Brussels, police also deployed water cannon to break up demonstrations. Police did not say how many people attended.

An estimated tens of thousands of protesters marched in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, against the cost of living crisis, low wages and an inability to access housing in major cities. House prices in Portugal have more than doubled ⁠⁠since 2017, while rents for new leases have increased nearly as much.

Portuguese Parliamentary Affairs Minister Carlos ‌‌Abreu ‌‌Amorim said on Friday that the “government will not yield to shouts from the street”.Protesters said their leaders are “out of touch” with the problem.

In Milan and Bologna, Italian police reported that, alongside peaceful cost of living rallies, protesters threw stones and clashed with officers.

Italian media reported several injuries and arrests.

French protests spill over

None of the protests reached the same scale as the nationwide rallies in France but they may be a sign of spilling over into other European nations, according to Alberto Alemanno, Professor of EU Law & Policy at HEC Paris business school.

“France is the epicentre of this movement … and there are signs now that this is spreading beyond France,” Alemanno told Al Jazeera.

He said Saturday’s protests may not be the last in many of these countries and new hotspots could emerge.

In Greece, Germany, and Austria, the “early stages” of a movement is emerging, with mobilisation expected “in the coming week”, he said.

They are not a single movement, he explained, but several protests happening at the same time, with some “shared grievances”: underfunded education, rising costs and, for students, uncertain prospects after graduation.

The unrest comes at a crucial time for Europe, as the continent prepares for what Alemanno called an “unprecedented super-cycle of national elections” in the coming 12 months, with votes scheduled in Spain, France, Italy and Poland.

“Inevitably, all these protests, all these mobilisations, are going to be at the centre of the political conversation,” Alemanno said.

Five days of clashes rock Tirana as students join a wider movement demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation.

Police in Albania have fired rubber bullets at antigovernment protesters in the capital, Tirana, as violent clashes intensify over demands for Prime Minister Edi Rama to resign.

The clashes continued on Saturday for a fifth consecutive day after high school and university students joined a broader movement against Rama, whose governing centre-left Socialist Party has held power since 2013.

The unrest has brought growing anger over education, unemployment and alleged corruption into a wider confrontation with the government.

Protesters threw stones, petrol bombs and fireworks at police near Rama’s office and elsewhere in central Tirana.

Some set cars and rubbish bins alight, creating burning barricades across streets.

Police responded with tear gas, water cannon and baton charges as demonstrators pushed against security lines.

The AFP news agency reported that officers used rubber bullets for the first time since the demonstrations began.

National police chief Skender Hita confirmed their use at a news conference on Saturday, saying they had been deployed “in a limited manner”.

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said nine protesters and four police officers received medical treatment on Saturday.

Hita said 167 people had been arrested over five days of unrest, while 132 officers had been injured.

Seven police officers were also suspended pending investigations into allegations that they had exceeded their authority.

Rama, who is serving his fourth term and has refused to resign, visited businesses damaged during the unrest on Saturday. He promised to listen to students and protect their right to demonstrate, while warning against further destruction.

He also accused his conservative political opponents of encouraging the violence.

Growing discontent

The students have complained about expensive university fees, poor educational facilities and limited employment opportunities, alongside allegations of government corruption.

At the start of Saturday’s demonstration, protesters set fire to a suitcase and threw it into the Ministry of Education’s courtyard. AFP reported that the gesture symbolised their determination not to leave Albania in search of better opportunities.

“We are demanding our rights, our future and a better country,” journalism student Sinan Billa told AFP.

The student demonstrations have added to months of antigovernment rallies organised by the Flamingo movement, which began as a campaign against a luxury tourism development on Albania’s southern coast.

The project is linked to an investment company founded by Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

The movement has since widened its demands to include Rama’s resignation amid allegations of corruption against his government.

The unrest has also spread beyond Tirana. Local media reported that protesters in the coastal city of Durres damaged a post office and blocked roads with burning barricades, extending the confrontations beyond the capital.