NEW DELHI — India spends more on programs for the poor than most developing countries, but it has failed to eradicate poverty because of widespread corruption and faulty government administration, the World Bank said Wednesday.
“India is not getting the ‘bang for the rupee’ that its significant expenditure would seem to warrant, and the needs of important population groups remain only party addressed,” John Blomquist, lead economist at the World Bank, wrote in a nearly 400-page study released Wednesday. India spent 2 percent of its gross domestic product, or $28.6 billion, last year on social programs to alleviate and prevent poverty, the World Bank said, a higher percentage than any other Asian country and about three times China’s spending.
