India is home to almost one-fifth of the world’s population. Its scale and diversity rival those of continents, not countries. India has “official” 22 languages but unofficially 19,500 languages have been recognized as having 10,000 speakers or more.a There is incredible diversity, but also incredible disparity. About 45 million people still live in extreme poverty,b and less than 4% of its 1.3 billion people paid any income tax at all.c
