Why is India still a poor country even with a huge population and natural resources?

印度拥有庞大的人口和丰富的自然资源，为什么还这么贫穷？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Dr. Balaji Viswanathan

India is a rich country with poor people. If you just consider the land, it is doing fine — with well less than half of Australia’s area it produces a more than its GDP. If you consider GDP (PPP) per square mile, India’s is somewhat comparable to the US. However, when you spread that $2 trillion GDP across 1.3 billion people you get poverty. Our natural resources [in terms of mineral and energy resources] is good for the land size but not that high for our population size.

The problem is that majority of the 1,300,000,000 people we have are not able to create sufficient amount of economic worth. The reasons are plenty:

印度是国富民穷。如果用国土面积来比，印度的面积不到澳大利亚的一半，但GDP却超过了澳大利亚。如果对比每平方英里的GDP(购买力平价PPP)，印度的PPP与美国相当。但如果你把2万亿美元的GDP分摊到13亿人口上，就只有贫困国家的水平了。我们的自然资源(就矿产和能源资源而言)对土地面积来说算得上丰富，但对我们的人口规模来说就不高了。

重点是我们13亿人口中的大多数人都没有能力创造足够的经济价值。原因有很多：

Majority of our labour is untrained. After many centuries of neglect, the labour available is simply not good enough for many of the complex engineering challenges of today. Thus, our industries often do low level work.

The work done by most of Indian women is not counted in the GDP. If your mom cooks you food, the country’s GDP doesn’t show an increase. But, if you hire her as a cook, the GDP increases. In general, GDP doesn’t include activities done at home without pay.

我们的大部分劳动力都没有受过训练。几个世纪来我们一直不重视这一点，导致如今可用的劳动力根本不足以应对复杂的工程挑战。因此，我们的制造业经常只能从事低端的加工。

大多数印度女性的工作并没有被计入GDP。你妈妈给你做饭，但不会让GDP增长。如果你雇她做厨师，GDP就会增加。一般来说，GDP并不包含无偿的家务活动。

Continuing from the previous point, most women don’t have sufficient level of modern technology to reduce their burden freeing them to do other productive work. Cumbersome wooden stoves still exst and plenty of women spend hours to get the family’s daily water needs from taps a long distance away.

Until recently plenty of women had a lot of children and given the outdated birthing methods used by many, a lot of women spent too much time birthing and raising children — leading to lower economic productivity.

The labour available is not as healthy as in rest of the world. Malnutrition is rampant and communicable diseases are plenty. A normal worker spends far more time sick than in the developed world.

继续上一点，大多数印度妇女也不曾拥有现代技术来减轻自己的负担，让自己腾出时间从事其他生产性工作。印度至今还在使用笨重的木制炉灶，许多妇女需要花费数个小时从很远的地方取水。

时至今日，很多印度妇女还会生育很多孩子，她们花费太多时间生育和抚养孩子，导致她们的经济生产力低下。

印度的劳动力也不如其他国家的劳动力健康。营养不良的问题十分普遍，传染病猖獗。和发达国家的工人相比，普通工人患病的时间要多得多。

Our laws are not good enough for fostering entrepreneurship. Starting a company is hard and running it is even harder. Thus, not enough companies are started and only when enough companies exst there will be competition to hire — increasing the salary of everyone. It is easy to start an IT company [due to few regulations] and thus the salaries & resulting GDP from IT sector is high.

In short, India’s path towards riches is fairly straightforward.

Trained labour. Women freed up from big household chores. Healthy labour. Business friendly laws.

我们的法律在鼓励创业精神方面也不够完善。创办公司很难，经营公司更难，因此初创企业不多，有足够的公司才会有招聘竞争—企业才能提高员工的工资。开办IT企业很容易(监管条例很少)，因此IT行业的工资和GDP很高。

简而言之，印度的致富之路其实很简单。

打造训练有素的劳动力队伍，把妇女从繁重的家务中解放出来，提高劳动力健康水平，制定宜商的法律条文。

Devendra Tandale

Following reasons for poor India.

British model of administation

British laws still active like Indian forest act 1864- 1927- 1980 no major updates after independence just maintained formality to accept under constitution. Police act 1961 and many.

Definition of civilians is used in reference to govt and citizens , which was used in British Raj. Even till date Indians never changed civil hospital to district hospital. Now all over world civilian is used regarding military and citizens. This mindset kept citizens away from govt affairs.

Without citizens contribution no country can grow. Govt bureaucracy and employees are consider them firat citizenship for themself and secondary citizenship to nongovt citizens.

India. Citizens don't feel connected to govt system. They feel govt is for their extortion and it is true.

我罗列了导致印度贫困的几点原因：

英国的行政管理模式

英国法律沿用至今，比如从1864年到1927年，又继续沿用到1980年的印度森林法，在印度独立后也没有进行内容的修订。还有1961年的警察法案和其他许多法案都是如此。

英国统治时期，对平民的定义是指政府和公民，到目前为止，印度人也还未把公立医院改为地区医院。现在全世界都用平民来区分军队和公民。这种心态使得印度人对政府事务漠不关心。

离开公民的努力，任何国家都无法发展。政府官僚机构和雇员认为自己是一等公民，其他公民都是二等公民。

印度公民觉得自己和政府毫无关联，政府的存在就是为了勒索他们，而这确是事实。

PMGowindan Nampoothiri

India is not a poor country . It is classified as Develo Country. Be proud of your country . (A poor country is percapita income below 1000 USD )

印度不是穷国，她属于发展中国家阵营。你应该为你的祖国感到骄傲。(贫困国家的人均收入低于1000美元)

Hari Gobindram

33% of our land has become un cultivable.

There is huge difference in Rural and Urban income.

49% of population is in villages.

There value addition is only 70% where as 25% of Urban's make value addition of 50%.

Village youth have gone lazy.

Our human index is near 130 out of 190.

( education , health, living standards) make index

我们有33%的土地已经退化成不可耕种土地。

城乡收入差距巨大。

49%的人口生活在农村。

他们的附加值只有70%，而25%的城市人口创造了50%的附加值。

乡村青年懒惰散漫。

我们的人类指数在190个国家中仅位列130名。

Rajiv Kumar Bhatnagar

Related

Why is India still poor despite having rich natural resources like good land, hills, rivers, and weather?

When India got independence our population was 33 crore(330million), today it crossed billion plus people.So whatever growth achieved eaten up by the increase in population.

Not all is bad, after opening up of market and started move towards globalization things change rapidly and large number of people come out of poverty line.

If we will be able to control corruption and uncontrolled growth in population,I hope it removes poverty from the country.

Thanks for reading.

为什么印度拥有丰富的自然资源，比如肥沃的土地、丘陵、河流和气候，但仍然贫困？

印度独立时，我们的人口只有3.3亿，现在已经超过10亿。因此，无论印度取得什么样的成就，都会被人口的增长所抵消。

并非都是坏事，在采取了改革开放和加入全球化之后，印度发生了迅速的变化，大量印度人摆脱了贫困。

如果我们能够控制腐败和失控的人口增长，我希望印度能够消除贫困。

谢谢大家的阅读。

Manab Roy

Corruption,no adequate infrastructure to use resources,dirty politics,1000 yes of looting by mughals,British left no wealth in the country.Traitors at a large scale always sabotaging.wrong educational system which has no practical output.Faulty constitution,legislation etc.

腐败，缺乏足够的基础设施来开发自然资源，政坛乌烟瘴气，莫卧儿王朝盘剥了印度1000年，英国也没有为这个国家留下一丁半点的财富。叛徒大肆破坏国家。教育制度没有发挥现实作用。宪法等法律法规漏洞百出等等。

Hariharan PV

Related

Why is India a very poor country while having a lot of resources?

The following are India’s main Resources, and how much are un-utilized:

为什么印度是一个资源丰富却非常贫穷的国家?

以下是印度的主要资源，尚未得到完全开发：

India's total rainwater is 3.45 trillion Cu.M capable of allowing every person (in the total of 1,360 million population) having not less than 7,000 L per day for all 365 days; but now over 90% are wasted, without proper storage and management. Incidentally, every year rains create flood havoc, and that adds up to the troubles created by “water non-availability” because of wastage;

印度的雨水总量为3.45万亿立方米，能够让每个人(总人口13.6亿)在365天内每天饮用不少于7,000公升的水；但由于没有适当的储存空间和管理手段，超过90%的降水资源都被浪费了。而且每年的降雨都会造成洪水，又增加了由于浪费而造成的“低利用率”所带来的麻烦;

India has over 10 billion Tons of non-forest vegetation, which includes a total of 1.5 billion Tons of materials that make up all our foods, vegetables, fruits, flowers, and fodder. The balance 8.5 billion tons (even more) are wasted without utilizing them appropriately. Let us consider one such Vegetation resource being wasted: COCONUT TREES. India’s total coconut trees volume is estimated at between 1.8 billion and 2.2 billion. On the basis of 60 year life for a tree, the annual Tree-materials available at “end-of-life” is 30 million trees, which form about 24 to 25 million Tons in weight (here we are not talking about the Coconuts, but the Tree that falls of after 60 years life). Almost 100% of these are now wasted. These could be a total of 40 million T, valued not less than Rs.4 trillion. This is just the case of one tree/ vegetation resource: We have Banana trees, Mango trees, Tamarind trees, Varieties of Palm trees, Arecanut trees, and various bamboos, grasses, shrub plants and even water hyacinths - all being completely wasted (as pointed out earlier, that wastage is a whop 8.5 billion T - annual!).

印度有超过100亿吨的非森林植被，其中包括15亿吨的食材，变成了食物、蔬菜、水果、鲜花和饲料。剩下的85亿吨(甚至更多)未能得到合理利用就浪费了。

比如有一种被浪费的植被资源：椰子树。印度的椰子树总量估计在18亿到22亿棵之间。以一棵树60年的寿命来计算，每年会有3000万棵临近“树龄到期”的椰子树可以加工成木材，重约2400万至2500万吨(我们谈论的不是椰子，而是树龄达60年的树)。

这些树几乎100%被浪费了。这些树的价值共计4000万美元，价值不低于4万亿卢比。

更何况我们还有香蕉树、芒果树、罗望子树、各种棕榈树、槟榔树，以及各种竹子、草、灌木植物，甚至水葫芦—这些全都被浪费了(每年浪费了85亿美元！)。

Another utilization could be conversion of available Biomass into Bio-Petrochemicals. Were we to convert about 3 billion T of the 8.5 billion T available biomass, India can generate not less than 300 million T Bio-Petrochemicals. India today imports about 190 million T petroleum. Thus, by converting only part of the wasted/ unused biomass, India can enjoy the benefit of more than 150% of the volumes and values of Petroleum now being imported - needing zero imports.

另一个用途是将可利用的生物质转化为生物石化产品。如果我们把85亿吨可利用生物质中的30亿吨进行转化，印度可以生产不少于3亿吨的生物石化产品。印度每年进口大约1.9亿吨石油。所以转化部分浪费/未得到有效利用的生物质，印度就可以获得150%的石油进口量和价值，而且还无需进口。

India has an estimated 300 billion Tons of coal, which should help us use OUR OWN Coal at 1,000 million for at least 300 years. But the Govt now imports about 250 million to 300 million, every year - wasting our own coal - and creating a big burden our poor economy.

India has about 500 million Cattle (equivalent), including all household animals and horses/ camels/ goats/ pigs etc. The daily animal waste from all of these animals is a whop 3,75 million T. These could be utilized in generating not less than 60,000 MW power, at village levels, capable of servicing over 635,000 villages - now struggling for power. Millions would get jobs stop the need for them to migrate to cities and far away places.

印度估计有3000亿吨煤炭储量，如果每年使用10亿吨煤，至少可以用上300年。但是印度政府现在每年需要进口大约2.5亿到3亿煤，不但我们自己的煤没有派上用场，还给我们可怜的经济带来了巨大的负担。

印度大约有5亿头牛（家畜），包括所有家养动物以及马/骆驼/山羊/猪等。这些动物每天产生的动物粪便高达37.5万吨，可以在村庄一级发电，发电量不会低于6万兆瓦，能够为635,000多个电力不足的村庄提供电力资源。数百万人将获得工作，不再需要前往城市和遥远的地方打工。

We have over 6,750 KM seacoast and a seawater volume of not less than 50 trillion Cu.M. Currently we are not using even 0.5% of the seawater, which contains, apart from Salt, many specialty metals (magnesium and many others of high values). India imports much of these from other nations. Extracting within India would stop imports.

… The above are just a tip of the iceberg of our huge resources and how we are wasting all these, and instead importing from other nations - becoming Economic Slaves of such nations. today, out GDP is just a paltry $2.75 trillion. That tells how low we are in conversion of the resources at our disposal.

我们拥有超过6750公里的海岸线和不少于50万亿立方米的海水容量。目前我们对海水的使用低于0.5%，海水中包含了盐和许多特殊金属(镁和许多其他高价值金属)。印度需要从其他国家大量进口。如果在印度国内开采，就可以减少进口。

以上只是我们巨大资源的冰山一角，看看我们是如何浪费这些资源的，我们需要从其他国家进口，成为这些国家的经济奴隶。今天，我们的GDP只有微不足道的2.75万亿美元。这说明我们对资源的转化率有多低。