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Although the trend is more subtle than for rain, a population density map shows that there are more people living along the southwest coast than to the east. There were reports of red rain along that coast because that's where the rain fell and that's where there were a lot of people to observe it.

And a nitpick which will hopefully bring this post back on topic - the average literacy you mentioned is wrong. It is 64.8% according to the 2001 census. The number you gave was for 1991. 14 years can make a lot of difference in a country like India, even given its huge population.

That data of avg. literacy rate of 52% is from 1991 census in India. According to the 2001 census , the avg. literacy rate is 64.8%.

Also check out this ...

http://india.eu.org/1963.html

India's literacy rate stands at 64.8%
The Economic Times, Saturday 10 July 2004,

NEW DELHI, JULY 10: As much as 64.8 per cent of India's population is literate while Uttar Pradesh continues to be most populous state followed by Maharashtra, according to details of the 2001 Census released on Saturday.

Plenty of orbiting satellites up there. What's amazing is this comes from a country with an average literacy rate of 52% (compared to 97% for the U.S.).

48% of their citizens can't read or write, but they're funding a space program to the equivalent of a few billion U.S. dollars. Amazing. I can only imagine what taxes must be like in India to pay for something so expensive when the per capita income is so low.

The penetration of TV is more than you know. I suspect it is more than the availability of clean water in India (the table is confusing, figure it out for yourself).
Around half the households have television (includes rural India). Education through television will work.

The census of India 2001 ( a site Site Optimised for Netscape! )came out recently and is covered in India Today ( this article is not free however. Check your local library for a copy of the magazine. Its very interesting)
The 2001 Census data has information on Houses, Household Amenities and Assets in India and has very interesting findings. It seems there are some 2.4 million places of worship in the country, as against 1.5 million schools and colleges and a mere 600,000 hospitals and dispensaries. No wonder there is so much unnecessary religious strife.

The point is, there is a lot of opportunity for growth and innovative technology is greatly needed there to increase the level of education and quality of life there. The question of which technology is most needed first is very difficult to answer.

I don't think any other problems North Korea may have has any bearing on whether or not they have high-tech hacking schools. I work for a large multinational and am repsonsible for IT in all areas outside US and Europe and the bushmen with bamboo computers and blow-guns myth is precisely that. Goddam Nigeria buys Pentium 4's, you think North Korea still uses vacuum tubes as the article laughingly asserts? Hell, India is considered one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world, have nuclear weapons and a space programme, but have barely 50% literacy. North Korea builds 8-lane highways that go virtually unused for future growth, don't think they don't have the resources and bright minds to throw at a military problem they think is pressing. I'm not saying the school is real, I really wouldn't know, but don't subscribe to the myth that everyone else in the world is using Lite-Brite instead of notebooks...

Indian K12 school education is _amazing_ if you go to a private school. I was fortunate enough to. Most people who grow up in the Indian Middle Class milieu hardly ever know that a less-privileged underclass exists. Or they are aware of it like background noise on an AM radio transmission.

Indian K12 school education _sucks_ if you go to a government school. The kindest thing I can say about it is that at least it is (as mandated by the Indian constitution) a reasonably secular education, and not the Hindu equivalent of an Islamic madarsa. What sucks? Budgets, facilities, a lack of qualified teachers. Also the education is Indian-language based, not English-based, and that is the *real* kiss of death for the students -- kids graduating from these grow up to be uncomfortable with English throughout their lives; for them, English is a second language: they won't grow up to be Salman Rushdies or Jhumpa Lahiris; or even Vinod Khoslas. This makes them almost unemployable in private industry (unless they remedy the situation themselves by taking lessons at home) and dependant on government jobs, unlike their private school counterparts whose first language to all intents and purposes is en-in.

Indian undergrad sucks _except_ at a few institutions (IITs, etc, as another poster mentioned). Reason: very little choice in subjects, lack of trained teachers, equipment -- usually boils down to the budgets available. Curiously, Indian undergrad education (especially Sciences/Engineering) is always in English.

The literacy rate in India according to the 2001 census is 65.38%, even accounting for padding let us say 55% (note the male/female imbalance on that page, though). That's more than half a billion people, yes; but are those half a billion living life anywhere _close_ to how Ashish lives? Nope. Out of my head, I'd say the Indian middle class is something like 30% of India -- 300 million, and about 15% (150M) belong to the middle income groups (MIGs) which actually _can_ purchase TVs, computers, automobiles, Windows licenses (wink).

Now, 150M is a large number; and it's very tempting to say that India has come a long way since the time it was a food-importing nation (today, starvation deaths in India are about as rare as extra-judicial in-custody deaths in the US: happens, but rare). Indeed the great thing about the last 10 years has been an expansion of the MIGs and the middle class in general.

But what about the rest? 750M is an even larger number than 150M. And they may have food, but basic sanitation, public health are all things that they've only heard of. If this was an Indian dinner-party talk, this would be the time most would roll their eyes, mutter "hopeless situation, forget about it", and walk away. The problem is, the numbers are so large, and the money available so small, that it's easier for most Indians to be in denial than to do something about this very sad state of affairs.

Also, the middle-class votes and is vocal. The "silent 750M" does vote, but is nowhere as vocal, and further is uneducated and have no idea of what good civic amenities mean, so it's easier for politicians to ignore them.

Anyway, sorry about this longish rant. But it touched a small nerve when I saw yet another oh-india-is-fantastic post. India _is_ very cool, because of a lot of reasons, but civic amenities like education isn't one of them.

Don't want to carry this thread off-topic, so folk who wish to tell me I'm totally and irredeemably wrong can go to my comments-enabled journal and comment there. Thanks (steps off soapbox).

Oh, good going there... try to fight stereotypes with some of your own, huh? Despite what you believe, Texas is not full of ignorant hicks. In any case, your first sentence doesn't necessarily follow from your second. 35% of Indians are below the poverty line. And with a population of about 1 billion, that's 350 million people in poverty. Sure, parts of the country is quite advanced, but that doesn't change the fact that a significant percentage, and an even more significant number of the population live in poverty.

... the literacy rate is 100%. Can any other place in the world claim the same ?

How about Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden? (Okay, so Sweden is "only" 99%). Those are all estimates though; I doubt if the literacy rate is really 100% in any country (or state).

P.S. Speaking of facts, the Census of India says that the literacy rate in Kerala is 91%. Very good, certainly, but a bit short of your 100% claim.

The best I've seen is the Office of Register General of India (ORGI), the Indian census. It's obvious how ORGI is pronounced, and it is the most commonly used term for their census organization. The best part is that the folks there use the term all the time, yet don't realize the humor in it.

According to preliminary Indian Census 2001 results, India's literacy rate is 65%, ranging from 45% to > 90% , with literacy rates amongst the under 24 population significantly higher than amongst the older generation (up to 20% higher in the least literate states). In about 10 years, India's literacy rate will nearly be 80% with literacy rates above 90% in several states.



The number of illiterates in India has declined in absolute terms in the past decade, and thanks to both declining birth rates and increasing literacy rates, this will continue.



But what will the _literate_ farmers do with internet abled computers?



Check the prices of crops, and increase their income by avoiding the middleman.



Get weather forecasts, thanks to the Indian government's investment in satellite, imaging, and remote sensing technology.



Buy supplies online from companies at a cheaper rate than traditional middlemen.



Communicate with relatives in other states, and other countries more quickly, cheaply, and reliably than via "snail mail". Internet cafe's have started springing up in smaller towns and the Indian government is building a fiber backbone along the Indian Railway's right of way, which will make it easy for > 90% of Indians to get net access.



Communicate with Indian bureaucracy with much less pain.