"My colleague is proof-positive of the incremental progress that is happening all over India."

Much of what you posted is fair comment. But this bit is problematic - India is dynamic, technologically advanced and developing rapidly. Part of it. The bits the Indian government want us to see. Then there's the stagnant, primitive, backward India. The bigger part, the part that's seen little gain as India unleashed its ambitions to be a World player, with an ambitious space programme and a nuclear arsenal. Would you believe India received annual multi-million pound development aid from Britain right up until last year to help all those poor that the Indian government preferred not to look at?

In line with what Zombie wrote here's something from the US POV:

"With respect to India, for the fiscal year 2014, the State Department request is $91 million. This represents a 16 per cent decrease from the fiscal levels 2012 (the previous actual spending)," said a senior State Department official.

This is in continuation of the trend that has emerged over the past few years.

In 2010, the United States aid to India was $126.7 million, which dropped to $121.6 million in 2011 and $108 million in 2012. The proposed aid is $98.3 million in the current fiscal of 2013, which ends on September 30.

According to wiki, the extent of aid to India, excluding military aid, is a little over 3.2 billion in US dollars this year. The current population is 1,270,272,105 people, half are under 25 yrs old. Seriously, 1 out of every 6 persons lives in India and there are more men than women. The aid is a drop in the bucket. The numbers are staggering for lack of education, the poor, infant mortality, and so on.

Some of the wealthy may be trying to make change and even there they run into resistance it seems. That doesn't mean a trickle down to the poorer populace. In fact, it is something to cling to because at least that is somewhere that they have control of the outcome. No one wants to have no control in their lives and it will be hard to convince folks of another way of doing things without widespread education and the ability to move upwards out of poverty.

First of all, it isn't fair to say that the Indian Government doesn't care about the poverty.  They do.  Very much so. perhaps even more than places like US.  There are schemes upon schemes upon for social welfare.  However like Ron said, you have consider the scale of the problem. One billion people, 300 million under the poverty line.  I'm afraid, it'll take more than just free stuff to the poor to fix problem. Another big issue is that the government services are notoriously unreliable even though they might be "Free".  Wealthy can afford to pay for better private solutions.  The middle class bleed themselves to afford the private solutions, leaving the poor to contend with the bad government services. 

Also, you shouldn't confuse gay rights problem with a poverty problem.  The British were the ones who criminalized homosexuality, the law stuck through the Indian penal code. The middle and high classes are just as illiberal on these things. The wealthy and middle class are more likely to think that being sophisticated or being better than the "masses" means adopting outmoded British ideas. This leads to some humorous cultural situations. What is truly an Indian heritage(complicated thing in itself, India is mix of cultures) and what is really something imposed by the British gets mixed up in the consciousness.  And complicating the issue is the profound insecurity about Indian identity in face of the western cultural hegemony. 

"My colleague is proof-positive of the incremental progress that is happening all over India."

 

Much of what you posted is fair comment. But this bit is problematic - India is dynamic, technologically advanced and developing rapidly. Part of it. The bits the Indian government want us to see. Then there's the stagnant, primitive, backward India. The bigger part, the part that's seen little gain as India unleashed its ambitions to be a World player, with an ambitious space programme and a nuclear arsenal. Would you believe India received annual multi-million pound development aid from Britain right up until last year to help all those poor that the Indian government preferred not to look at?

Just to annoy you more on this Zombie (because it annoys me), we agreed to fund NO NEW PROJECTS in India after 2014.... but all existing commitments would be met. it will actually be past 2024 before we stop paying actual money to India.

The British were the ones who criminalized homosexuality, the law stuck through the Indian penal code....  adopting outmoded British ideas.

In fairness, when the law was introduced 150 years ago, it wasn't an outmoded British idea.... it was EVERYONE's idea. It represented the best wisdom of its time... it's only now that we see such things for what they are.