News from India
Today I was reading the India Tribune, which is an Indian newspaper. On the front page, it highlighted three Indians that made Time’s list of 100 most influential people. The three Indians were Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, & Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi.
There was a disturbing article in the paper titled “Heat wave in Orissa, 36 dead.” This article is about the heat wave in the state of Orissa. Temperatures there are surpassed 45 Celsius or 113 Fahrenheit. The highest temperature in Orissa has been 50.1 Celsius or 122.18 Fahrenheit.
If you would like to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit click here to use the converter.
The final article I read was labeled “Clothes, phones top Indians shopping list, says survey.” This article explains the mindset of middle class Indian consumers. Based on a National Survey, these results are relatively surprising. There are many fascinating facts including:
- Telephone expenditure per person per month increased 515% since 1999-2000 in rural areas & 230% in urban areas.
- Education expenditure has gone up 45% to 57% in urban India & from 29% to 44% in rural areas
- Access to power has gone up from 34% to 54% in rural areas and from 74% to 90% in urban areas
- About 26% of all households in rural India have a television set & 66% in urban settings
- Refrigerators are found in 4% of rural homes and 32% of urban homes
