This BBC Newshour story (RealAudio) following on the first Rolls-Royce automobile purchased in India in fifty years contains some interesting analysis about the state of the Indian economy. Citing the liberalization of the economy beginning in 1991, Indian diplomat Pavan Varma states that “the number of people below the poverty line have been reduced fairly dramatically.” This in spite of the protestations of the interviewer, Claire Bolderson, that the gap between rich and poor illustrates “quite a contradictory picture that’s emerging from India today.”