I'm not sure I agree. The title indirectly makes a comparison to other countries, so I agree with you that per capita might be better for that, but the actual a

I'm not sure I agree. The title indirectly makes a comparison to other countries, so I agree with you that per capita might be better for that, but the actual article isn't really about how India is doing compared to other countries. The article really talks about how India is doing in comparison to how it was doing a few months ago and then paints a picture of how dire the situation currently is. I think the raw numbers actually do a better point of getting both those points across.