with inflation at 10% for much of the 80s and 5-10% through the 90s, 30 rupees in 1980 is worth over 250 rupees today, so 90 rupees would be a decline. anyway, if the study ingrid quoted is the one i remember, they used inflation-adjusted purchasing-power-parity dollars, which attempt to reflect actual costs of living though they wouldn't reflect regional differences within india.
On Wed, 2007-09-26 at 21:20 +0530, Venky wrote: > A totally naive reading (in the economic sense) of the figures > above seems to indicate that, ignoring the effects of inflation, > 89.6% of the people used to live on less than 30 rupees a day 20 > years ago -- and now 79.9% of the people live on less than 90 > rupees a day. Have no idea how inflation would skew these >
