The poor superpower: "High tech wizardry and mediaeval squalor live side by side in the world's largest democracy.
Numbers are a blessing for newspaper correspondents in India. Thanks to the subcontinent's vast population there is invariably an enormous total to spice up any story.
The electorate alone is a marvel - there were 714 million eligible voters at the last national poll, nearly twice the number of electors for the European Parliament. India's biggest state, Uttar Pradesh, is home to 200 million people - more than Brazil - and would be the world's fifth most populous country if it were a separate nation. Even the road toll holds a gruesome fascination because of its sheer magnitude. More than 120,000 die on Indian roads each year, the equivalent to obliterating the population of Darwin or Toowoomba."
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