does this growth mean till 2007 india recorded the fastest growth rate of billionaires in the world four out of the ten richest people in the world are indianswe are a country with rich natural resources skilled manpower and scientific and technological prowess yet predatory crony capitalism has condemned us to be a society with some of the worst human development indicators in the world230 million people are undernourished more than half of indias women are anaemic 40 per cent of children under three years are underweight 219000 habitations have no access to clean drinking water 39 per cent of adult population is illiterate 77 per cent of the population spends less than rs 20 a day the share of wages in the organised industrial sector is among the lowest in the world under the congressupa dispensationthe agrarian crisis continues suicides by farmers have not abatedthe public distribution system has been further enfeebled the bpl category excludes large sections of the poor 52 per cent of the agricultural labour households are excluded from the pds allocations for the apl category have been drastically cutthe food policy is callous and inhuman three crore tonnes of foodgrains lie in the godowns but the government refuses to undo the cut in the allocations to the statesprice risethe people have suffered from continuous price rise of all essential commodities even though the government claims the rate of inflation has come down below 4 per cent the prices of food items continue to rise at above 10 per cent when the international prices of oil dipped to 40 a barrel the government reduced the prices of aviation turbine fuel eleven times between september 2008 and february 2009 to help out the private airlines but the prices of petrol and diesel was reduced only twice during this period and cooking gas only once the inability to curb price rise andprotect the people from the ravages of inflation has been one of the biggest failures of the congressled governmentthe manmohan singh government promoted policies favouring big business and big corporates both indian and foreign sezs were designed to help these interests grab large tracts of land and they were given a bonanza of tax sops the refusal to restore capital gains tax in the stock market and stop the massive tax evasion through the mauritius route is meant to help indian and foreign speculators to reap huge profits the backdoor entry of fdi in retail trade is jeopardising the livelihood of lakhs of small shopkeepers and tradersthere has been rampant privatisation of health and education systems thus depriving the common people of health and education facilities allowing fdi in real estate and encouragement of real estate speculation has led to land grabbing and a massive increase in land prices in and around urban areas it has become impossible for the poor and the middle classes to own a decent homethe congressled government has promoted publicprivate partnerships in various infrastructure projects whereby the public sector bears all the