The trickle down effect - one small example

While there have been innumerable articles written about India's march to economic prosperity, they all inevitably mention that the people at the bottom of the pyramid have not benefited.They talk about the wide gap, although in a statistic I saw recently India's
gini index compares favorably with other developing countries such as China and Brazil.

Yes we still have a long way to go, but believe me on a day to day basis we see numerous examples of this trickle down effect. One small test. If you have friends and relatives here, ask them how easy is to get help - house maids, drivers, cleaners etc ? You might be surprised.


Yesterday I took a cab, one of the many radio called cabs which have sprung up over the last few years. While they might not be as roomy as the black and yellow Ambassador taxis we all grew up with, these cabs do not serve as the living, dining and bed room of the cab driver. They are cleaner and surprisingly all their meters do work . Unfortunately the drivers are as clueless about directions as the black and yellows, so you should know your destination and how to get there.

While I don't normally chat with the drivers, out of desperation in my search for a chauffeur at home, I started a conversation about how much his income was etc. In the area where we live the average salary for a driver is any where between Rs.7000 to Rs.9000 per month.

The cab driver mentioned that he had to give the cab company an average of Rs.800.Together with the gas, his outlay per day was Rs.1200. The company took care of the maintenance. After five years the cab would be his. At the end of the month he cleared between Rs.25,000 to Rs.30,000 . I asked him again to make sure that I had not misunderstood him. Taken at face value and not doubting him, on a yearly basis that works out to be approximately US Dls 6,7000 to 8000 which for a semi-skilled worker in India is not too bad. So the trickle down effect is happening.