Why income inequality in India may be fuelling populist politics
6 years ago

Why income inequality in India may be fuelling populist politics

Live Mint  

New Delhi: After Congress president Rahul Gandhi promised a nationwide farm loan waiver if voted to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is contemplating a nationwide farm income support scheme, news reports suggest. Among large economies for which consistent time series data is available for the past two decades, India has seen the highest increase in the share of people who think that incomes should be made more equal in their country, data from the World Values Survey shows. Estimates of income inequality provided by the nationally representative India Human Development Survey suggest that income inequality is far higher than consumption inequality and is comparable to countries in Latin America, infamous for their high levels of inequality. The levels of wealth inequality are higher, data from the All India Debt and Investment Survey analysed by the economists Ishan Anand and Anjana Thampi show. Despite the improvements in educational mobility in the country, India has one of the highest levels of inequality in access to education, research by a team of World Bank economists showed last year.

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History of this topic

Stagnant wages amid fast economic growth: We need an Indian Enlightenment
2 days, 15 hours ago

Stagnant wages amid fast economic growth: We need an Indian Enlightenment

Live Mint  

India’s economic growth story has been impressive. Wage stagnation amid rising inflation: The disparity between India’s economic growth and stagnant wages is stark. Chief economic advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran warns that low wages could stifle India’s long-term potential by weakening consumer demand and the quality of life for millions. This is not the template for a ‘Viksit Bharat.’ The paradox …

Budget 2025: How India's wealth shifted to the pockets of top 1%
5 days, 12 hours ago

Budget 2025: How India's wealth shifted to the pockets of top 1%

India Today  

To raise the spending power of the middle class, the Centre in the 2023-24 Budget extended full rebate up to an income of Rs 7 lakh, raising it from Rs 5 lakh under the new tax regime. While 57.7 per cent of income is in the hands of the top 10 per cent of people, 65 per cent of wealth …

The Indian economy is yet to fully escape the state’s shackles
1 month, 3 weeks ago

The Indian economy is yet to fully escape the state’s shackles

Live Mint  

Indian citizens are hesitatingly capitalist. For capitalism to work for a large majority of people, you need institutions to encode and enforce the rules, and prosperity to fund the welfare payments required to uplift specific disadvantaged segments of the population. This column, the sixth in the series on the ‘quantity to quality’ reforms required for India to achieve upper-income status, …

India’s Economic Inequality Crisis: How Elite Development Models Failed the Nation
2 months ago

India’s Economic Inequality Crisis: How Elite Development Models Failed the Nation

The Hindu  

Published : Nov 09, 2024 19:05 IST - 30 MINS READ On June 4, 2005, the venerated business house of the Tatas signed an agreement to set up a steel plant in Bastar, Chhattisgarh. “The major beneficiaries of the government’s largesse”, the Press Trust of India reported at the time, were “big corporate entities like Reliance Industries, Essar Steel and …

Economic Survey 2023-24: Tax policies to have major role in tackling income inequality
5 months, 3 weeks ago

Economic Survey 2023-24: Tax policies to have major role in tackling income inequality

New Indian Express  

NEW DELHI: Tax policies will have a major role to play in tackling income inequality in the coming years as deployment of technology, like AI, can have a more deleterious impact on employment and income, the Economic Survey said on Monday. The 2022 State of Inequality in India report observed that in India, the top 1 per cent accounts for …

India logs fall in inequality between 2011-12 and 2022-23, says govt report
7 months, 1 week ago

India logs fall in inequality between 2011-12 and 2022-23, says govt report

Hindustan Times  

Inequality in both rural and urban areas of India fell between 2011-12 and 2022-23, according to a full report on Household Consumption Expenditure released on Friday by the National Sample Survey Office. The full report released Friday shows a fall in the Gini coefficient, a commonly used measure of inequality, for both rural and urban spending between 2011-12 and 2022-23 …

Make the poor richer without making the rich poorer
8 months, 1 week ago

Make the poor richer without making the rich poorer

The Hindu  

Since the Congress party released its election manifesto on April 5, the word ‘redistribution’ has dominated the election discourse. Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleges that the Congress’ manifesto promises to ‘redistribute’ wealth by taking away people’s gold, mangalsutras, imposing new taxes and giving it to poor minorities. ‘Fix the system’ The idea of a wealth tax to extract from the …

Is today’s India more unequal than under British rule?
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Is today’s India more unequal than under British rule?

Al Jazeera  

India’s top 1 percent holds more income today than it did under the British, new research shows. “So 90 percent of the population is not even making the GDP per capita of India,” Kumar said. Looking back at the BJP’s 2014 poll promises, Bharti said that “what we are actually observing 10 years later in terms of inequality is exactly …

Poverty and inequality debate resurfaces in election season
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Poverty and inequality debate resurfaces in election season

Hindustan Times  

As Indians heads to the poll this season, a new chapter is being written in a very old debate about poverty and inequality in India. This debate has been stirred up by the release of new data from a government- The economist Maitreesh Ghatak spoke about the resurgent debate over poverty and inequality on last week’s episode of Grand Tamasha, …

Trivialising the equality debate
8 months, 2 weeks ago

Trivialising the equality debate

Hindustan Times  

That India is among the rare exceptions in the Global South which has embraced privatisation and globalisation without a major economic crisis is a fact often not appreciated enough. Rising capital intensity in most high value sectors has made generating better paying jobs outside farms more difficult today. The BJP, which is clearly aware of the generalised economic discontent over …

Towards a less poor and more equal country
8 months, 3 weeks ago

Towards a less poor and more equal country

The Hindu  

In March, World Inequality Lab, a global research centre focused on inequality and public policies, published a working paper titled, ‘Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj’. It states that “the ‘Billionaire Raj’ headed by India’s modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces.” Inequality undermines both …

Inequality, unemployment, inflation in India are at all time high, says Parakala Prabhakar
8 months, 4 weeks ago

Inequality, unemployment, inflation in India are at all time high, says Parakala Prabhakar

The Hindu  

Inequality, unemployment among youth, inflation of various commodities and household debt are at an all-time high in the country, said political economist Parakala Prabhakar, in Chennai on April 16. Speaking at a national colloquium on the present political situation titled “The values at stake,” organised by Chennai Thinker’s Forum, Mr. Prabhakar, who is also the author of the book The …

Patralekha Chatterjee | Why isn’t rising inequality turning into a poll issue?
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Patralekha Chatterjee | Why isn’t rising inequality turning into a poll issue?

Deccan Chronicle  

The view from the penthouse and the pavement is staggeringly different. By 2022-23, the top one per cent income and wealth shares are at their highest historical levels; India’s top one per cent income share is among the very highest in the world, higher than even South Africa, Brazil, and the United States, notes the paper, titled “Income and Wealth …

Terms of Trade | What explains the disconnect between economic inequality and politics in India?
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Terms of Trade | What explains the disconnect between economic inequality and politics in India?

Hindustan Times  

The Paris-based World Inequality Lab recently published a paper which claims that economic inequality in India is the highest it has ever been since the British Raj. Even the most vocal supporters of the government or those who criticise the likes of World Inequality Lab paper authors will not argue that inequality has been eradicated like extreme poverty in India. …

Inequality rising since 2000s, top one per cent in India holds 40 per cent wealth: study
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Inequality rising since 2000s, top one per cent in India holds 40 per cent wealth: study

The Hindu  

Published : Mar 23, 2024 13:17 IST - 5 MINS READ Inequality in India has skyrocketed since the early 2000s, with the income and wealth share of the top one per cent of the population rising to 22.6 per cent and 40.1 per cent, respectively, in 2022-23, according to a working paper. The paper authored by Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, …

Top 1% Indians’ income share is higher now than under British-rule: Data
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Top 1% Indians’ income share is higher now than under British-rule: Data

The Hindu  

March 23, 2024 08:28 am | Updated 05:23 pm IST In 2022, 22.6% of the national income went to the top 1% of Indians. Chart 2 | The chart shows the year-wise share of national income for the top 10%, the bottom 50% and the middle 40% of the population To start with, in the 1950s and 60s, the income …

Inequality report renews question on growth model
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Inequality report renews question on growth model

New Indian Express  

India’s income and wealth inequality has touched historic peaks, making it one of the world’s most unequal countries, according to the World Inequality Lab’s new working paper. Authored by renowned economists including Nobel laureate Thomas Piketty, the report estimates the richest citizens, or the top 1 percent, own 40.1 percent of the country’s wealth and 22.6 percent of the total …

Mint Primer | Mind the income gap: Is India becoming a plutocracy?
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Mint Primer | Mind the income gap: Is India becoming a plutocracy?

Live Mint  

Income and wealth inequality in India are at a historical peak with the share of the richest 1% higher than in countries like China and Brazil, finds a new study by the World Inequality Lab. Inequality in India declined post-independence till early-1980s, after which it began rising and skyrocketed beginning 2000s, shows the report titled ‘Income and Wealth Inequality in …

Inequality worsening in India with share of top 1% in total income at new high, says new paper co-authored by Piketty
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Inequality worsening in India with share of top 1% in total income at new high, says new paper co-authored by Piketty

Hindustan Times  

The share of the top 1% of Indians in total income and wealth is expected to have reached its highest ever level in 2022-23, according to a working paper published by the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics. The working paper by four economics researchers – Nitin Kumar Bharti, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi – …

Terms of Trade | Will HCES findings change politics in India?
10 months, 2 weeks ago

Terms of Trade | Will HCES findings change politics in India?

Hindustan Times  

When the government publishes the data for the 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, India will see a big debate on consumption levels, inequality and poverty. From the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the National Food Security Act under the United Progressive Alliance era to the Narendra Modi government significantly expanding the scope of asset transfer programmes such as …

Growth mania can be injurious to society
11 months, 2 weeks ago

Growth mania can be injurious to society

The Hindu  

The nation’s media, present in full force at the annual conference of the World Economic Forum, dutifully relayed back to India sound bytes uttered by the allies of the world’s giant corporations. Rural wage rates A simple exercise would cast light on how unequal recent growth in India has been. Even for the section of the rural workforce for which …

Naysayers Have It Wrong, Incomes in India Are Rising
1 year ago

Naysayers Have It Wrong, Incomes in India Are Rising

News 18  

The state of income in India has suddenly become a topic of raging discussion after former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and economist Rohit Lamba suggested that the country cannot escape the lower-middle income trap by 2047. India’s gross direct tax collections in the ongoing financial year, until November 9, have increased almost 18 per cent to Rs 12.37 lakh crore. …

India among top countries with high income, wealth inequality: UNDP report
1 year, 2 months ago

India among top countries with high income, wealth inequality: UNDP report

Live Mint  

India has emerged among top countries with high income and wealth inequality but the share of the population living in multidimensional poverty fell from 25 to 15 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the UNDP said in a new report. Despite these successes, poverty remains persistently concentrated in states that are home to 45 per cent of the country's population …

Find ways to address lopsided development
1 year, 8 months ago

Find ways to address lopsided development

Hindustan Times  

Areport in this newspaper said that six states account for nearly 60% of the country’s Goods and Services Tax collections. A simple comparison of Gross State Domestic Product numbers shows this — the top five states account for almost 50% of the national Gross Domestic Product. PREMIUM What is often missed in these discussions is the worrying state of the …

India's Per Capita Income Doubles Since 2014-15
1 year, 10 months ago

India's Per Capita Income Doubles Since 2014-15

News 18  

India’s per capita income in nominal terms doubled to Rs 1,72,000 since 2014-15 when the Narendra Modi-led NDA came to power but uneven income distribution remains a challenge. “You are looking at GDP in current prices, but if you account for inflation, the increase is much less,” said noted development economist Jayati Ghosh on doubling of per capita income in …

India's per capita income doubled since 2014-15, but uneven income distribution remains a challenge
1 year, 10 months ago

India's per capita income doubled since 2014-15, but uneven income distribution remains a challenge

India Today  

Despite India's per capita income in nominal terms doubling to Rs 1,72,000 since the Narendra Modi-led NDA came to power in 2014-15, the issue of uneven income distribution remains a persistent challenge, experts were quoted as saying by news agency PTI. However, after adjusting for inflation, the per capita income has risen by approximately 35 per cent from Rs 72,805 …

Addressing gender inequalities: India needs bold steps
1 year, 11 months ago

Addressing gender inequalities: India needs bold steps

Hindustan Times  

India, which assumed presidency of G20 this year, has stated that it will prioritise inclusive growth and development, with women empowerment and representation at the forefront of its G20 discussions. This indeed is a desirable objective, given the large gender inequalities that exist in several G20 member countries, especially in India, which also gets reflected in its overall human development …

Why are India’s poorest people being left behind?
1 year, 11 months ago

Why are India’s poorest people being left behind?

Al Jazeera  

On Tuesday, February 7 at 19:30 GMT: India’s BJP-led government says its final budget before a general election in 2024 will spur economic growth, but opposition politicians are among critics who say it fails to address ever-deepening income and wealth inequality highlighted by anti-poverty groups. But it does not include the re-introduction of a wealth tax on the rich that …

India\'s richest 1% own more than 40% of total wealth: Oxfam
1 year, 11 months ago

India\'s richest 1% own more than 40% of total wealth: Oxfam

Deccan Chronicle  

Davos: The richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country's total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth, a new study showed on Monday. Releasing the India supplement of its annual inequality report on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual …

India's richest 1 per cent own more than 40 per cent of total wealth: Oxfam
1 year, 11 months ago

India's richest 1 per cent own more than 40 per cent of total wealth: Oxfam

Firstpost  

Davos: The richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth, a new study showed on Monday. Releasing the India supplement of its annual inequality report on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual …

It\'s time BJP wakes up to people\'s woes, says Kumaraswamy
2 years, 3 months ago

It\'s time BJP wakes up to people\'s woes, says Kumaraswamy

Deccan Chronicle  

BENGALURU: Endorsing the views expressed by organising secretary of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Dattareya Hosabale that economic inequality, poverty and unemployment are dangerous for the country, Janata Dal Secular leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday said economic inequality in the country is a black dot when the country is celebrating its Amrit Mahotsav of country’s Independence. “People’s frustration …

Hosabale’s statement raises question on claims of ‘achche din’: HDK
2 years, 3 months ago

Hosabale’s statement raises question on claims of ‘achche din’: HDK

The Hindu  

Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday said RSS national general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale’s statement that economic inequality, poverty and unemployment are very dangerous holds a mirror to the present condition in India, besides raising big questions over claims of “achche din” by the Union government. A total of 23 crore people are earning less that ₹375 per day while …

Rising Poverty, Income Inequality: RSS Leader Hosabale Flags 'Demon-like Challenges' Ailing Country
2 years, 3 months ago

Rising Poverty, Income Inequality: RSS Leader Hosabale Flags 'Demon-like Challenges' Ailing Country

News 18  

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Sunday expressed concern over alleged rising income inequality and unemployment in the country, asserting that poverty is posing as a “demon-like challenge in front of us.” Hosabale, however, said several steps have been taken in the last few years to address this challenge. Besides poverty, “inequality and unemployment are other two challenges …

Poverty, unemployment are demons in today’s world: RSS
2 years, 3 months ago

Poverty, unemployment are demons in today’s world: RSS

The Hindu  

Poverty and unemployment are demons in today’s world, said general secretary of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Dattatreya Hosabale on Sunday. Unemployment rate is also very distressing as the current rate is 7.6%,” said Mr. Hosabale who also quoted a United Nations Human Development Index report. Livelihood is also a big problem as per the UN report which also stated that conflicts …

The inequality challenge for India@75
2 years, 5 months ago

The inequality challenge for India@75

Live Mint  

During the period 1950-51 to 2019-20, for which evidence is available, in real terms, growth in GDP was 4.9% per annum while growth in GDP per capita was 2.9% per annum. This provides a sharp contrast with the period 1900-01 to 1946-47 during the colonial era, when national income growth was 1% per annum and per capita income growth was …

Income Inequality Declined in India During Covid-19, Nation Managed Shocks Well: SBI Report
2 years, 6 months ago

Income Inequality Declined in India During Covid-19, Nation Managed Shocks Well: SBI Report

News 18  

Inequality of Income in India has declined significantly since FY17, while inequality has also declined during the pandemic, according to the latest SBI Ecowrap research report. The decline in income inequality has been significant since FY17, the year of big bang formalisation that started with demonetisation, RERA reforms and GST reform in FY18, said the report authored by Soumya Kanti …

The relevance of a hypothesis on inequality caused by selfishness
2 years, 7 months ago

The relevance of a hypothesis on inequality caused by selfishness

Live Mint  

Samuel Johnson was emphatic: “Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.” As a normative observation, this is unexceptionable. Support for the selfish rich inequality hypothesis rises with the level of corruption and decreases with an individual’s rank in the country’s income distribution. The study’s final analysis shows …

Is inequality natural or a political-ideological creation?
2 years, 7 months ago

Is inequality natural or a political-ideological creation?

Live Mint  

An Oxfam report on income and wealth inequality recently set a cat among the pigeons. The Oxfam report shows that the bottom 50% of the Indian population’s income has come down to 13.1% of the total from 20% in 1991. Next, consider wealth: the top 10%’s wealth, which was 54% of the country’s total earlier, has ballooned to 64.6%, while …

How has India's consumption inequality come down to a four-decade low?
2 years, 9 months ago

How has India's consumption inequality come down to a four-decade low?

Business Standard  

A recently published IMF working paper said that the effect of the subsidy adjustments on poverty is striking. The report claimed that consumption inequality during the Covid-affected 2020-21 in India fell to near the lowest level in the last 40 years, primarily because of free food supply to 800 million people among other factors, the working paper said. However, the …

Number Theory: How rich are India’s richest – and how poor are the rest?
2 years, 9 months ago

Number Theory: How rich are India’s richest – and how poor are the rest?

Hindustan Times  

The scourge of wealth inequality is a global phenomenon. In a recently released working paper “The sky and the stratosphere: concentrated wealth in India during the lost decade”, we studied the changes in the household wealth distribution between 2012 and 2018. Official data suggests that the Gini coefficient of per adult household wealth in India fell from 0.718 in 2012 …

What should the government do to address deepening inequality?
2 years, 11 months ago

What should the government do to address deepening inequality?

Business Standard  

As the Budget season comes around, we’re again hearing a lot about India’s inequality problem. In the latest round of the ICE 360 Survey 2022, conducted by the People Research on India’s Consumer Economy, it was found that the annual income of the poorest 20% of Indian households -- which was constantly rising since 1995-- plunged 53% in the pandemic …

The cold truth about India’s income inequality
3 years ago

The cold truth about India’s income inequality

The Hindu  

The latest edition of the World Inequality Report has confirmed that the world continues to sprint down the path of inequality. “Global multimillionaires have captured a disproportionate share of global wealth growth over the past several decades: the top 1% took 38% of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s, whereas the bottom 50% captured just 2% of it.” India’s …

Global (and Indian) trends in inequality
3 years, 1 month ago

Global (and Indian) trends in inequality

The Hindu  

The story so far: The World Inequality Lab, a research centre at the Paris School of Economics, released the 2022 World Inequality Report on December 7, 2021. The report has found India to be one of the world’s most unequal countries, with the top 1% getting 21.7% of the national income. The report reveals that income inequality in India today …

India Among Most Unequal Nations; Top 1% Hold 22% Of National Income: Inequality Report
3 years, 1 month ago

India Among Most Unequal Nations; Top 1% Hold 22% Of National Income: Inequality Report

ABP News  

New Delhi: India is now among the most unequal countries in the world, according to the findings of the latest report titled 'World Inequality Report 2022'. Stating India's position as a ‘poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite’, the report said the top 1 percent of the population holds more than one-fifth of the total national income in …

India among most unequal nations; top 1% of population holds 22% of national income: report
3 years, 1 month ago

India among most unequal nations; top 1% of population holds 22% of national income: report

The Hindu  

India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with the top 1% of the population holding more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021 and the bottom half just 13%, according to a report. The world map of inequalities reveals that national average income levels are poor predictors of inequality — among high-income countries, some are …

Mohan Guruswamy | How rise in inequality distorts Indian society
4 years ago

Mohan Guruswamy | How rise in inequality distorts Indian society

Deccan Chronicle  

In 2013 the French economist Thomas Piketty released Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a magnum opus on income inequality. We are, Piketty suggested, returning to the kind of dynastic, ‘patrimonial’ capitalism that prevailed in the late 19th century.” We only need to look around us to see that most of the wealthy today are inheritors, and without doubt many of …

Explained: How a raging pandemic is widening India's wealth gap
4 years, 3 months ago

Explained: How a raging pandemic is widening India's wealth gap

India Today  

Ever since India gained Independence, the country has traversed a wave of ups and downs to finally become a global powerhouse over the last five years. In India, the wealth gap has been rising sharply during the ongoing pandemic as previous levels of income inequality were already high in the country. A January 2020 study by rights group Oxfam India …

In India, inequality bigger challenge than poverty
5 years, 1 month ago

In India, inequality bigger challenge than poverty

Hindustan Times  

What if India had just 100 people? That’s how skewed wealth distribution is and, by a wide reckoning, the next big challenge for India isn’t poverty reduction, but inequality. Research points to two specific challenges: not only are the rich consolidating a disproportionate amount of wealth and income, but per capita incomes across states — which should converge, by standard …

Oxfam shows a mirror to Indian economy: What is making country's rich-poor divide widen so rapidly?
5 years, 11 months ago

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

Firstpost  

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 …

India’s richest 1% get richer by 39% in 2018; just 3% rise for bottom-half: Oxfam
5 years, 11 months ago

India’s richest 1% get richer by 39% in 2018; just 3% rise for bottom-half: Oxfam

The Hindu  

Indian billionaires saw their fortunes swell by ₹ 2,200 crore a day last year, with the top 1 per cent of the country’s richest getting richer by 39 per cent as against just 3 per cent increase in wealth for the bottom-half of the population, an Oxfam study said on Monday. Globally, billionaires’ fortunes rose by 12 per cent or …

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