``More than half the world's poor live in India and China. In 1990-93, they received $2 and $1 per capita in aid." ``Small countries often receive $50 per capita or more and this is discrimination against large countries as allocation and income is not strong,'' it said in its latest report on aid assessment. An important factor in aid allocation is population and ``countries that have small population get more assistance per capita or more relative to the gross domestic product,'' the bank said.

The bank said, it costs the same to provide technical assistance to India as to the Central Bank of Laos, but, if aid is financing public services such as education or roads, there perhaps should not be discrimination against large countries. Another factor is that aid allocation often depends on political orstrategic interests of donors like the U.S. aid in West Asia or European aid to former colonies, it said.

It said, in 1996, 32 countries with poverty rates above 50 % had policies and institutions that were better than average for all developing countries which include India, China, Ethiopia, and Bolivia.