In terms of adaptability, goal maintenance, and integration (to use the concepts from writings of Talcott Parsons) India has made a great progress. The growth rate of income during the Tenth Five Year Plan period, especially in the later years, was seen to be more than satisfactory and something to look forward. Ironically, in terms of UNDP’s ranking on the basis of various Human Development Index (HDI) India is still one of the poorest countries of the world. The level of poverty is quite high and in several states the number of poor persons has been rising in absolute numbers. According to Eleventh Five Year Plan the absolute number of poor people has risen in Uttar Pradesh (including Uttarakhand), Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh) and Bihar (including Jharkhand). In between the poor and the rich, there is a large expanding middle class, rational but conservative, modern but ritualistic, forward looking but bound with the traditional roots. It is clear that people encounter development in different ways: growth for the upper classes; hope, skill development and high income for the middle class; and inadequate and poorly managed schemes such as Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for the poor people. Planning Commission estimates show that the headcount ratio of poverty is falling. But there are several methodological problems and it is unlikely that in the coming two or three decades the average standards will go up significantly. Thus the continuing relative deprivation among the majority of people is a fact to reckon with.