You, sir, are quite disillusioned with our country!
Based on purchasing power parity, India has a per capita GDP of about $3000 USD. Yes, we are at the bottom of the pile, although China is only at about $6500.
(Source: ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita[/url])
Indonesia, Phillippines, and Pakistan are some of the other populous countries with similar GDP figures.
Where things get really interesting is if you look at the GDP figures of world cities.
Reference: ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP#Asia.2C_Central_.26_South[/url]
Mumbai and Delhi have GDP figures comparable to many other cities in developing AND developed countries.
I'm not a financial analyst or economic expert, but it does look like our cities are hugely richer compared to our rural areas. Hence, the national level statistics and fundas that we apply are really not valid.
Shanghai, as an example, produces $233 billion revenues vs $208 billion produced by Mumbai. Plus, we are only talking about white money. So, Mumbai may be dirty and crumbling but sure does know how to make money! Mumbai and Delhi's per capita income is almost $11000, which is way higher than the national average of $3000.
Compare to Shanghai with a per capita income of $15500, Cairo at $12000, Manila at $13000, Bangkok at $17700. We are really not doing too bad!