28 Sep 2010
POOR MPS OF INDIA !
Poor Members of Indian Parliament recently agitated and got rewarded with hefty increase in their pay and perks.
But how do they stack-up vis-à-vis MPs of other countries ?
Times of India ( Aug.22,2010 ) computed salaries ( including perks ), of MPs of several countries. Then divided these with the per capita GDPs of respective countries.
To ensure an apple-for-apple comparison, salaries were adjusted using $ Purchase Price Parity.
The following picture emerged :
Salary ( + Perks )
-------------------- =
Per capita GDP
Kenya…………………………………………………………………..180 times
India ( before recent upward revision )……………104 times
USA…………………………………………………………………………35 times
Pakistan………………………………………………………………….17 times
UK…………………………………………………………………………….9 times
France……………………………………………………………………….8 times
Italy……………………………………………………………………………7 times
Japan………………………………………………………………………….6 times
Singapore……………………………………………………………………4 times
Other countries of Western Europe......less than…..10 times
India's per capita GDP ( in $ PPP ) is taken at $ 3,176 / year
This hides the fact that nearly 45 % of India's people ( that should be close to 500 Million ), earn less than $ 0.5 / day as per author Rajesh Shukla ( " How India Earns, spends and Saves " )
How can you blame poor Indian MPs for not knowing that by 2020 , some 320 million Indians will be “ unemployed “, when they are debating important issues such as who should be the captain of the Indian Cricket team ?
With regards
HEMEN PAREKH