A new study by economist Surjit Bhalla estimates that the actual levels of poverty in India are exactly half those estimated by the government - that is, against the official estimate of 261 million people below the poverty line, Bhalla reckons the figure is actually 130 million. Bhalla, in fact, estimates global poverty levels are a full 400 million less than those estimated by the World Bank. Thus, in 1999, there were a total of 766 million poor people in the world, and not 1.15 billion as estimated by the World Bank.