As we rhapsodize about the talents of Indian students, the country's burgeoning middle class, its phalanxes of engineers and its high-tech hubs, let us not forget that India is a country in which 421 million people are desperately poor (more destitute people there, in fact, than in all sub-Saharan Africa) and some 800 million depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. And how many millions do not have even ready access to potable water? Pankaj Mishra provides a reality check.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow