host: hello and welcome to "global 3000." today we focus on india, the world's largest democracy, which is currently treading on the tail of the dragon, as its economic growth is set to overtake china's. but just like in china, the gap between rich and poor in india is also getting ever greater. and here's what's coming up. on the way up india and its fast-growing economy. first exploited, then unemployed the plight of tea pickers in darjeeling.

tracking down poachers nepal calls in its army to -- protect wildlife. there's no doubt that india is making waves. it's high tech industries are flourishing not least thanks to an increasingly skilled workforce. but india has experienced a few bumps on the road to becoming a global player. prime minister narendra modi came to power just over a year ago on a ticket of reviving an economy that was running out of steam. here's a look at what is driving and what is hindering india's potential. reporter: india is known the world over for its it companies and call centres. but the country's economy has long offered much more and it's growing. international investors are driving the growth in alternative energies and in the pharmaceuticals and manufacturing industries. india's economy is booming. some predict the country is even in a position to top china's

growth. the international monetary fund recently raised india's growth forecast to 7.5%, meaning it would overtake asia's largest economy for the first time in years. concerns of an economic standstill seem to have vanished. instead, a year before parliamentary elections, there's a great deal of optimism among indian businesses. prime minister narendra modi's governing party, the bjp, has announced business-friendly reforms aimed at attracting further investment. finance minister arun jaitley, for instance, has proposed a nationwide goods and services tax to replace the many individual regulations and help reduce bureaucratic hurdles. >> we shall leave no stone unturned in creating a vibrant and strong india. the prevailing economic situation presents a great

challenge. reporter: part of the challenge is modernising the ramshackle rail and road networks and tackling widespread poverty. many people in india lack access to electricity, food and drinking water. a third of the population of 1 and a quarter billion live on less than a dollar and twenty-five cents per day. more than 65 million live in slums. and child mortality is high. corruption and illegal, untaxed earnings are widespread. reportedly even members of parliament are being investigated for tax evasion. >> the population suffers with a lack of proper implementation of policies. laws are not followed. people don't know how to get their work done without paying bribes, so all-round, people

suffer as a result of the black economy. reporter: funding has even been cut for the health care reforms promised by the government. on the other hand, small-scale projects in rural areas provide hope of faster development. biomass is providing electricity for entire regions in the north of the country. at the same time, more than $11 billion are being spent to further modernise the infrastructure. prime minister modi wants to convince industrialised nations to invest more. germany also plays an important role in that respect. the indian economy may be large and powerful, but a large part of the population has yet to benefit from it even though the oecd has just certified that india has one of the best growth rates in the region. host: while things are looking good for india's industry, how do the poor fit into the modern, high-tech nation it wants to be? almost one in five of its people

still live on less than two dollars a day. and it's no secret that many who have work simply cannot live off their wages. like the teapickers, whose images often decorate the packages found on supermarket shelves. here's our report from darjeeling. reporter: for 15 years, roma ray has worked up here on the phuguri tea estate in darjeeling at an elevation of just under 2000 metres. women like her have to bear a heavy burden, weighed down by large baskets for ten hours a day in the blazing sun. they earn the equivalent of one euro sixty a day. that's the usual wage on india's tea plantations. >> i just do my job. it's very exhausting, but what else can i do? reporter: she hands in what she's picked twice a day. 70 kilograms all told. these tea leaves will later be

available on german markets, among others. 47-year-old roma and her husband live on the estate. their home is a simple shack. it's draughty and leaky. power cuts are frequent. but there's no money left for repairs. they don't earn enough to buy more than rice and lentils. roma proudly shows us pictures from the weddings of her three daughters. the youngest just recently moved out . >> i earn too little as a tea picker. i saved everything to pay for my daughters' weddings. every single rupee. i want them to have a better life. reporter: the bundapani tea estate demonstrates what can happen when management fails.

for months, not even the miserable daily wages were paid. then suddenly, the managers disappeared. more than 1200 workers lost their job from one day to the next. they've still received no compensation. sangita was one of the unpaid workers. she now spends her days breaking up stones. she has no other way of scraping together even a few rupees. she's lost everything: first her job, then her husband. he died shortly after the estate closed in 2013. all she has left is her seven-year-old son. >> my son still can't understand it. just recently he asked me where his daddy was. i told him he was in heaven, where he is doing well.

reporter: first sangita's electricity was turned off. she could no longer pay the bills. she invests all the money she has in her son. every two weeks they get rice from the government, but it's not nearly enough. >> during the monsoon season, the house was completely under water. we had to ask neighbours to take us in. my son couldn't sleep for weeks. reporter: here in the village, every job depended on the estate. since bundapani closed, people have starved to death. now one child in three suffers from malnutrition. here they'd give anything to be able to earn even a tiny amount. those politically responsible for the tea-growing sector are

in kolkata. the labour minister doesn't view these people's situation as a problem. >> there is no one in the tea garden who is dying out of hunger out of starvation. there is none. they can die for other destinies. death is the normal destiny of the human being. reporter: on the phuguri estate, workers still slave away for a pittance. french, british and german companies buy here. despite their commitment, they have little influence on working conditions. when asked, the german companies teegschwendner and teekanne say that responsibility lies solely in india. roma still has to pick tea leaves for another ten years. she hopes her body holds out.

>> when i retire, we'll get a third of what we get now. reporter: the additional thirty cents a day agreed on at the latest pay negotiations won't change much. but roma has no time to waste on fears for the future. she has to get on with her daily struggle for survival. host: education is the key to escaping the poverty trap and although india has received praise for its progress in getting more chidren into school, inequality persists. as universities get better, the quality of basic schooling leaves a lot to be desired. in delhi a group of young activists is taking the expertise they are getting from the world economic forum in davos to ordinary classrooms. this community calls itself "global shapers", and it's doing just that, shaping life on a local level without waiting for politicians to get things done.

reporter: this suburb of the indian capital delhi is home to day labourers and artisans, though many are without work. their children attend school, but only for a few hours a day, because there's not enough room in the state educational institutions. but these kids here are benefiting from the efforts of private initiatives. laughter yoga is one the classes. this is an afternoon school, founded by volunteers and funded by small donations from its supporters. faith gonsalves is using rooms in the school for her project, music basti. she's the project's director for a group that organises music lessons for the children. ♪

only here can the children learn to express themselves through music. in the state schools, there are hardly any classes in the arts. there, the emphasis is often placed on rote learning. >> this kind of work is satisfying for me personally, but it also has a lot of challenges. the education system is riddled with so many problems. sometimes it honestly seems really hopeless about how we'll be able to integrate an art or music program within the larger education framework in our country. art and music, even though we're in a very culturally rich country, they're also not considered viable things to study or a viable kind of a profession. reporter: most of the children live in dire conditions: according to unicef, 18 million children between the ages of 8 and 17 live on the streets primarily in large cities such as delhi. nandita bhan recognizes the need for change .

she's a social scientist who's returned to delhi after studying in the us and britain. she works in a foundation that campaigns for better public health care in india. >> i think a lot of people say that there are many indias. but that's the beauty of living in this country that you see different experiences and you learn from different experiences. but yes, there is a tremendous amount of inequality in the country right now. and i hope that that's going to change. i hope that through our work, especially, through my work in reporter: like faith gonsalves, nandita bhan has joined the global shapers community in delhi. several thousand young people around the world are already active in the network. members meet in a cafe to exchange ideas. ramit bhatnagar prepares young people for the jobs market. as a burgeoning industrial nation, india urgently needs skilled and well-trained

professionals. >> the collective impact is much more stronger than individual impact, so the community has a member base which comprises some of the brightest people from diverse sectors. and when all of us combine and put our thoughts together and brainstorm and come up with solutions, the impact is far greater than any individual can have. reporter: faith gonsalves's music project is a small but important component towards achieving that. the project takes the children seriously and gives them support. their hard daily life seems far away during the hours they spend here. >> i think there's always a certain amount of self-doubt, but i try and use that self-doubt to motivate myself and seek motivation from my team as well, to keep going.

reporter: every day faith gonsalves and her colleagues commit themselves anew to getting delhi's children off the streets and providing them with a sense of orientation and values. host: today's program focuses on india, so we thought we'd find out what people there tend to grab when they're on the go. as you know, our global snack segment is all about no-fuss foods people like to enjoy in various parts of the world. in india, daal is certainly one of them. and we've caught up with neratsch singal in rajasthan to get a taste of his dal baati. reporter: mount abu is a town in rajasthan, the largest state in india. mount abu itself is considered a holy mountain, onto which the

hindu divinities descended to earth. abu restaurant is situated on a lively thoroughfare. its speciality is a typical regional dish: dal baati. every day for ten years, neeraj singhal has prayed for his restaurant to succeed. but that alone is not enough. >> we're here in the middle of town and there's a lot of competition. so you have to offer especially high quality to stand out. and we've done that quite well. reporter: his head baker makes up to 450 baatis per day. >> dal baati is quite a hearty dish. so many people come here on their way to work, because it keeps you going for a long time.

reporter: while the baati, bread rolls spiced with cumin, are crisping in the oven, the chef prepares the dal. onions, garlic, garam masala and fresh herbs are fried. then the lentils are added. mixed with sharply spiced ghee - the snack is ready to serve. abu has a lot of regular customers. at a price the equivalent of one euro sixty per serving, dal baati is also affordable for families. >> it's really nice. the baati, it's baked. it's mild; it's not much... the dal is very spicy, and when we mix the two, it tastes very good. reporter: and those who've tried it once always come back to abu, at the foot of the holy mountain.

host: now tigers are printed on so many posters, coffee mugs and leaflets in the call to save them that it's easy to forget just how slim the chances have become of ever seeing a real one. in the wild that is. nepal's chitwan national park is home to just over 100 of them. there, the tough crack-down on poachers in recent years is beginning to show some success. we sent our reporter wolfgang gebhardt to find out more about this conservation success. reporter: soldiers on bicycles patrolling chitwan national park. it's just after dawn. suddenly a creature appears, one that looks like something out of jurassic park: a one-horned rhinoceros.

caution is advised. the rhinos are targeted by poachers. of the mere 2500 left in the world, about a fifth of them live here in chitwan national park. the park extends over nearly 1000 square kilometres, which makes it one of the largest protected areas in nepal. the army monitors the river as well. a close encounter with a mugger crocodile. conservation expert diwakar chapagain advises to the army. he says gharials are now extremely rare, as their eggs are often stolen from their nests. >> the park has a breeding center, so they artificially breed there and keep them up to two to three years. and in between two to three

years they're released in the wild. reporter: last year, according to its own records, nepal lost no big game to poachers. the country is considered an international role model when it comes to species protection. success first came through the mass deployment of the army as here in chitwan, where every day about 1500 soldiers search the park for poachers. smart patrolling: mobile phones with gps record what areas are searched and when. cellphones and digital cameras: expensive technology in the fight against poachers. both the equipment and soldier'' training were sponsored by the world wildlife fund in nepal. the past few days haven't turned up much only a few people collecting firewood. in future, drones will also be deployed to monitor the depths of the forest.

the bengal tiger: there are plenty of pictures and signposts about them. but their tracks are rarely found. animal carcasses are evidence that the tigers are around, even if they're not visible in the tall grass on the river banks. but they're often caught -- by camera traps. worldwide there are only about 3000 tigers still living in the wild. a good 120 of them live in chitwan, and the number is rising. >> when i just saw these photographs i was so amazed, looking at this. look at this majestic creature! it just grabs the wild boar, another principal prey species of tiger in chitwan national park. the habitat that we still do have, is sufficient for doubling the tiger. that means nepal can achieve doubling the tiger.

reporter: species protection in the national park works only because people in the surrounding villages also benefit from it. they're allowed to collect firewood, but only in a forest planted specially for them outside the national park. and they profit from the more than 100,000 tourists who try their luck at getting a picture of a one-horned rhinoceros. of the 15 euro entrance fee, half goes to the local population. that pays off. the villagers often help the soldiers. these field workers have reported illegal fishermen. but the real sensation is back at headquarters. the man being led away here is considered nepal's worst

rhinoceros killer. he was captured in malaysia and handed over to chitwan. he's said to have killed 22 rhinos. their horns sell for about 50,000 euros a kilo in china, where they're used as a treatment for impotence or cancer. now the alleged poacher faces 15 years in prison. it's a success for the chief warden at chitwan, who pulled strings behind the scenes. all we find out is that there was a paid informant. >> we have to motivate, we have to mobilize informants properly and effectively. so that is why we succeed to arrest him, even if he was hiding in malaysia. reporter: nepal's most dangerous elephant, in contrast, is still

at large, although he's said to have killed 21 people. the mood is tense, even among the soldiers. dhurbe is like a ghost that disappears for a long time, then turns up again. now he's showing interest in this female. but dhurbe is afraid of soldiers. the killer elephant was shot once, but survived despite the bullets in his body. why he became so dangerous is unclear. >> generally elephants are very wise. they have a certain wisdom. probably it was harmed by some people. otherwise unless it was harmed by any people it would not generally attack. reporter: for three years dhurbe has behaved himself. soldiers will no longer shoot at him as long as he remains peaceful. it's the nicest way for the army to protect nepal's animals: through non-violence.

host: and if you would like to find out more about nepal's efforts or sink your teeth into dal baati, you can find the recipe on our website. there you can also watch any of today's reports as video on demand. just go to dw.de.global3000. we'll be back again right here same time same place in a week from now, until then thanks for watching and bye bye.

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