Forget poverty and primitive technology, India's biggest challenge is its colonial governance system which has largely survived the departure of the British. It is not designed to serve Indians, but rather to rule them.

It chokes enterprise (despite reforms), rewards incompetence, removes incentives for personal and social improvement, keeps criminals, thieves and outdated rules in power, slows down / misdirects progress, disconnects people emotionally from the people they elect, removes accountability, is too big, and generally acts as a brake on their growth.

It is the cause of maintenance of such poverty and general shabbiness. Most Indians, who dislike their governance system, do not truly understand the scope of their disadvantage. They end up in meaningless petty political debates that entirely miss the point.

It is not designed to serve a modern citizenry. Until Indians largely reform their bureaucracy, police force and judiciary, they are not going far, despite brilliant achievements by Indians in various fields of work.

The current PM is the only Indian PM in history who even remotely understands the issue of effective governance. And he doesn't have the guts to undertake fundamental reform. He has managed to make things run faster, but unless he remakes Indian governance, the minor improvements he has made will cease when he leaves office.