That leaves 6m-10m people who are truly needy, not including those in prison who generally receive better medical care than poor law-abiding citizens.

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While salaries might be lower, political instability, poor infrastructure, recurring strikes and labor-law complexities can add their own costs.

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Her sister-in-law Faye is the opposite a worrier, haunted by poor decisions and fearful of the future.

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Religious tempers had been calmed, government functioning made more transparent (through the right to information law), and a series of welfare measures for the rural poor (pre-eminently, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme) initiated.

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He may have picked up his business acumen while practicing law, but he also got something else: real estate, which cash-poor clients sometimes used to pay his fees.

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Even those who had a warm heart for the poor, such as the Jesuit Juan de Mariana (1536-1624), argued that equality before the law required some inequality, as it was just that the most productive should earn more.

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