Half a billion people lifted out of absolute poverty
According to the latest poverty assessment by the World Bank, released in October 2026, India’s extreme poverty rate has dropped to just 2.6% of the population, compared with 27.1% in 2011. That is 496 million – or half a billion – people who have better lives.
This is good news – but have you seen it making headlines? This is another example of my proposition that most news is bad because that it what makes news newsworthy.