Oxfam shows a mirror to Indian economy: What is making country's rich-poor divide widen so rapidly?

The income inequality has been increasing for the last one and half decade even more sharply, to be specific since 2004-05 In India, like elsewhere in the globe, the poor have become even poorer in the last year and the rich got even richer, said the latest round of annual study by Oxfam, an international group focusing on data relating to poverty across the world. Its major findings include: A) India’s top 10 percent of the population now holds 77.4 percent of the total national wealth. The last survey showed that the richest one percent in India holding 73 percent of the total wealth and 67 percent Indians representing the poorest half witnessing their wealth rising by 1 percent. “In developing countries, raising agricultural productivity, rapid accumulation of capital, and technology diffusion in labor-intensive sectors can substantially lift growth and ensure that the fruits of prosperity are more broadly shared,” the paper says, adding “Policies to improve skills for all, to ensure that a nation’s infrastructure meets its needs, and to encourage innovation and technology adoption are thus all essential to driving growth and ensuring a more inclusive prosperity.” So basically, the cure for rising income-inequality lies in creating a better-skilled society and boosting agriculture and labour -intensive sector, precisely the problem areas India is presently grappling with.