Oxfam International, a confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations that focuses on the alleviation of global poverty, has released a report that reveals the following facts about India’s rising wealth disparity:
The Indian billionaire’s fortunes surged by Rs. 2,200 crore in 2018.
Between 2018 and 2022, India can potentially produce 70 new millionaires per day.
Top 1% Indians got richer by 39% while the wealth for the bottom 50% of the Indian population increased by just 3%.
India’s top 10% population holds 77.4% of the total national wealth. The contrast is even sharper as the top 1% Indians hold 51.53% of the national wealth.
The bottom 60% of the population owns merely 4.8% of this wealth.
Top 9 billionaires hold the same wealth as the bottom 50% of the Indian population.
Let’s have a look at the 9 richest people (not families or houses) in India –
1. Mukesh Ambani
2. Azim Premji
3. Lakshmi Mittal
4. Shiv Nadar
5. Kumar Birla
Also Read: Watch: Self-Made Billionaires Of India
6. Dilip Shanghvi
7. Radhakishan Damani
8. Uday Kotak
9. Cyrus Poonawalla
This trend is seen not only in India but also through out the world. Globally, billionaires’ fortunes rose by 12 % in 2018, whereas the poorest half of the world’s population’s wealth decline by 11%.
Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said that concentration of wealth in such a manner is “morally outrageous” and that if such a trend continues, it could lead to a “complete collapse of the social and democratic structure” of India.
Income disparity like this is a characteristic feature of a capitalist country and was less profound when India was overtly a socialist economy.
Where should we trace back to blame this stark difference in wealth- in capitalism vs socialism debate, economic growth vs development debate or should be pit it on the government?
Image Credits: Google Images
Source: NDTV, Scroll.in, Business Insider
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