The middle class is also relatively poor, with an average wealth of Rs 7,23,930. At the same time, the top 10% of the population owns around Rs 6,354,070, while it’s a massive Rs 32,449,360 for the top 1%, reports Asian Lite News
The gap between the haves and have-nots in India widened further in 2021, according to the World Inequality Report 2022, released on Tuesday.
Authored by Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab, and coordinated by famed French economist Thomas Piketty, the report notes that the top 1% of India’s population owns more than one-fifth of the total national income and the top 10% owns 57% .
In contrast, the bottom half owns just 13%.
“India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with affluent elite,” said the report by the World Inequality Lab, which does work through evidence-based research on inequality worldwide.
According to the report, the average household wealth in India is Rs 9,83,010, with the bottom 50% owning almost nothing as their average wealth is a paltry Rs 66,280.
The middle class is also relatively poor, with an average wealth of Rs 7,23,930. At the same time, the top 10% of the population owns around Rs 6,354,070, while it’s a massive Rs 32,449,360 for the top 1%.
The report notes that India’s liberalisation policies have led to one of the most extreme increases in income and wealth inequality observed in the world.
While the top one per cent has largely benefited from economic reforms, growth among low and middle-income groups has been relatively slow and poverty persists.
Gender inequalities are also very high in the country. The female labour income share is equal to 18%. This is significantly lower than the average in Asia, excluding China, at 21%.
Billionaires’ share of global wealth soars
The share of global wealth of the world’s richest people soared at a record pace during the Covid pandemic, a report on inequality showed Tuesday. Since 1995, the slice held by billionaires has risen from one percent to three percent, according to the World Inequality Report.
“This increase was exacerbated during the Covid pandemic. In fact, 2020 marked the steepest increase in global billionaires’ share of wealth on record,” the document said. The club of the richest one percent has taken more than a third of all additional wealth accumulated since 1995, while the bottom 50 percent captured just two percent.
“After more than 18 months of Covid-19, the world is even more polarised,” Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics, said. “While the wealth of billionaires rose by more than 3.6 trillion euros ($4 trillion), 100 million more people joined the ranks of extreme poverty,” said Chancel, noting that extreme poverty had been previously falling for 25 years.
A real-time ranking by Forbes magazine shows that the top 10 richest people each have a net worth exceeding $100 billion, with Tesla boss Elon Musk on top with around $265 billion.
Only one of the men is not American – LVMH luxury group chief Bernard Arnault – and all but two are tech industry leaders whose fortunes have been turbocharged by soaring company share prices.
Exacerbated inequalities
According to the report, the world’s 52 richest individuals have seen the value of their wealth grow by 9.2 percent per year for the past 25 years, well above less wealthy social groups. Women’s share of total global income from work was less than 35 percent, up from near 30 percent in 1990 but short of parity with men.
Europe was the world’s most equal region, with the richest 10 percent taking 36 percent of the income share, whereas the Middle East and North Africa was the most unequal as the wealthiest 10 percent of society took 58 percent of income.
Chancel, the study’s lead author, said state intervention was crucial in the fight against poverty but those wealthier nations were able to act more during the coronavirus pandemic. Rich countries introduced measures such as furlough and increased social security payments during the crisis to prop up income levels and save jobs, which states with fewer resources did not replicate.
It added that today’s taxes excessively target property and should instead include all forms of wealth, particularly financial assets, which make up the core of modern fortunes.
The authors also recommended the creation of an international financial register to allow authorities to monitor taxpayers’ assets and capital income and reduce tax evasion.
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