According to the latest Millennium Development Goals report by the U.N., a third of the world's 1.2 billion poorest people live in India.
India only reduced its poverty rate by 9.3 percent between 2005 and 2010, the report notes, with 32.7 percent of the country's population falling below the poverty line in 2010. India also had the highest number of deaths in children under five in 2012.
"We don't have to be proud of what we've done," minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla told The Times Of India. "Poverty is the biggest challenge... I am sure when the next report comes, we will have done much better."