Hyderabad Culture and Economy

Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is located about 300 kilometers from India's southeastern coast, and is the fourth-most-populated city in the country.

Residents of Hyderabad are called Hyderabadi. The majority of the population are from the Telugu people, who speak Telugu and comprise one of the largest ethnic groups in the world. The city also houses large populations of Marathi (who originated in western India and speak Marathi) and Arabs. There are also a variety of minority ethnic groups from within India, as well as communities from Yemen, northern Africa, Armenia, Iran, Turkey, and other foreign areas.

The majority religion in Hyderabad is Hindu, with a very large Muslim presence. There are small communities of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jain, and Parsi.

The official languages of the city are Telugu and Urdu, but English and Hindi are widely spoken, especially among white-collar workers.

In many senses Hyderabad has a stable economy. In 2009, the World Bank Group rated it India's second-best city for doing business. It is the center of the Telugu (Tollywood) film industry, and is a center of the diamond and pearls trade, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and information technology. It has an excellent airport and many universities. Hyderabad has a long and rich history in literature, music, and other arts.

However, the city itself contains almost a thousand slums, with hundreds more in the suburbs – totaling 1.7 million people out of the city's population of 6.8 million. Two-thirds of the slum-dwellers have lived in the slums for at least ten years. More than a third of the "chief wage earners" are illiterate, and almost three-quarters of the households live below the poverty line –meaning they earn less than US$478 per year. Many of the slums contain schools and community centers, but there is a small percentage of children (3.7%) who do not attend school, and 3.1% work in child labor jobs, including hazardous ones.

The following important information was provided by The World Bank (www.worldbank.org), a non-profit organization working to reduce poverty world-wide:

India Economic Overview

Achievements:

With a population of more than 1.2 billion, India is the world's largest democracy. Over the past decade, the country's integration into the global economy has been accompanied by impressive economic growth. India has now emerged as a global player with the world's fourth-largest economy in purchasing power parity terms.

Poverty has been on the decline. According to official government of India estimates, poverty declined from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10. Rural poverty declined by 8 percentage points from 41.8% to 33.8% and urban poverty by 4.8 percentage points from 25.7% to 20.9% over the same period. The government is now investing in a set of pioneering initiatives to bring basic services to the poor – in elementary education, basic health care, health insurance, rural roads, and rural connectivity.

Challenges:

With more children entering elementary school, the need for universalizing secondary education has emerged. Equally important is building the skills of India's rapidly-expanding workforce, whose ranks are joined by some 8 million to 9 million new entrants each year. Moreover, a large proportion of the population lacks access to good quality health care, and progress in improving health indicators is slow. India also has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world.

India's growing economy is placing huge demands on critical infrastructure – power, roads, railways, ports, transportation systems, and water supply and sanitation. While the government has raised its investments in infrastructure, the investment gap remains daunting with an estimated $1 trillion required to meet the country's resource needs over the next five years. Accordingly, India is encouraging private participation in infrastructure development.

India is also undergoing a massive urban transformation. By 2030, the urban areas will be home to 40 percent of the country's people – doubling the urban population within a span of thirty years. How India manages this urbanization will largely determine the long-term sustainability of its towns and cities, and quality of life for a sizeable part of its population.

India's remarkable economic growth has raised the issue of environmental sustainability. With its high population density, stressed ecological systems, and substantial dependence on natural resources, the country is very vulnerable to climate change, the first impact of which will most likely be felt in the water sector.