Are the less educated and less productive poor pulling India down?or are the energetic and entrepreneurial rich shoving the poor to the margins, turning them into outliers keep out of this nation's growing prosperity? IN facet, are the world's poor a drag on global economic growth?or is the deepening divide between the haves and have-not turning economic and social inequality  into an abyss that may not be bridged  by means other than venomous anger and upheaval?

As we enter this millennium's second decade, these issues should be at the centre of every businessperson and politician's thoughts because lifting people out of poverty is no longer a moral issue.The poor can no longer be made to wait, while the rich first generate sufficient surplus at their tables to furnish  feel good help.The ways in which poverty,inequality, and injustice are burning up people are central to the internal security,prosperity and stability of our country and the world as a whole.How far the haves are responsible or not are vital matters deserving reflection.

To take just one example, major security threats to our region and to the world today are fuelled by terrorism .Between  one third and half of our national menaced by terrorist activities unconnected to Islamic jihadists and spawned by our home grown grinding poverty,worsened by injustice and out of sight ,out of mind neglect. 

Were poverty grinding, skeletal and endless the poor might continue  to stay in their place as they have done for millennia . They would let the rich enjoy superior as normal situation continuing the traditional downtrodden submission of their parents and grandparents.

But things have changed during the past three decades.Among other things, thanks to television,IT,and health gains,the poor are no longer as desperate and resigned as their ancestors. they have seen in almost every country and especially in India the poverty need not grind them to dust.What they thought was their natural dreary destiny is turning out to be less deterministic than for their parents.

This realisation is causing a revolution every where . The poor have tasted education, however inadequate and seen feasible dreams of uplift form their dismal fate.They are no longer willing to sit still and wait for a tickle down to crumbs from the top tables.They insist on a better life.Many turn to religion because it allows them, with the moral endorsement of their peers, to believe they can make a difference if not for themselves then for loved ones they leave behind. it's likely that , in the new decade,these trends will become sharper , speedier and more lethal.so they deserve attention.