I also think his thesis isn't to celebrate poverty but to consider that development (or modernity, globalization, pick a term) comes with its own problems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Anger , his book from 2017, isn't perfect but it's a good read of what he's about.

It depends on your definition of poverty or acceptable standard of living.

  -  According to the Planning Commission earning more than ₹ 32 ($0.4) / day (26 for Rural) ! means you are over the poverty line , even with this absurdly low number India still has 90 Million people living in poverty. 

  -  Using World Bank's 2017 revised two phased metric - "lower middle-income" line set at $3.20/ day and an "upper middle-income" line set at $5.50/ day. Applying this to 2011 data we can expect around 60% of India i.e. 768 million people were living below lower-middle income levels in 2011. 

Cost of living , economic progress, population, inflation and dozen other things have changed in the last 10 years and we can argue all day long on the more accurate number, however by any reasonable metric well over 500 Million in India are living in poverty.