Why India's Poor Are Poor?

I ran across this story on National Public Radio's Planet Money blog.

It is an interesting and compelling short human-interest piece. And it makes a good prima facie case that there is a role for manufacturing in developing economies. I don't disagree that there is. But what I found more interesting were the links to other stories at the end. What popped into my head was, "maybe there are also strong institutional reasons that the poor remain poor." If bribery is necessary for progress in an economy, how can the poor progress without the means to pay the bribes? I suspect that if bribery is so widespread, it would take a bribe to land a better-paying job in the manufacturing sector. I'm just saying....