The Delhi Commmonwealth Games 2010 are now under way and the Indian government has been working flatout to convince the world that they are capable of hosting a major international sporting event. Unfortunately, things have not quite gone according to plan. Although they managed to get the opening ceremony out the way hitch free, for the 400,000 people who have been kicked out their homes to make way for the stadium this will be scant consolation.

Driven out of the city without compensation, these slum dwellers were joined by tens of thousands of beggars and street vendors that the Indian government did not want the world to see as part of this showcase of modern India.

But these people represent the real India, the reality for 830 million people who live on less than $1 a day. $9 billion, the cost of staging the games, 2000 times the original estimate, will mean nothing to them. Such sums are unimaginable for those struggling to keep themselves nourished and sheltered on a daily basis. Neither will it probably even occur to them that it is their money that is being squandered through corruption and theft on a scale that would embarrass an African dictator.

Although India may be nuclear armed with its own space programme and boast one of the fastest growth rates of any economy in the world, unfortunately these trappings of success are shared by precious few of its one billion plus citizens.

For 90% of the workforce is technically underemployed, the IT sector that is helping to fuel this economic growth employs less than 0.2% of the working population and although it contributes a disproportionate amount to GDP, it is subsistence agriculture that the vast majority of the population still rely on to put food in their mouths.

It may be the world's biggest democracy but 25% of all the assets in the country are owned by less than 100 people. Its super rich are among the most successful and powerful businessmen in the world, living in a nation with highest infant and maternal mortality rates on the planet. A country that has more officially recognised poor people (those forced to live on less than $2 a day) in eight states than in the 26 poorest African countries combined.

It is unlikely any of them will be overly concerned about India's medal tally.