INDIA : A LOWER MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRY WITH 140 BILLIONAIRES !

Mukesh Ambani , Gautam Adani , Shiv Nadar , Lakshmi Mittal and 136 more to name , are Indians with net worth of more than a Billion USD . According to the latest FORBES List of The Countries With The Most Billionaires 2021, INDIA ranks third with 140 billionaires surpassing Germany ( which has 136 billionaires). India had an addition of 14 new billionaires in the list this year. The total net worth of these billionaires is $596 BILLIONS.

Looking at these mammoth figures, one thing that comes to our mind instantly is that then why World Bank has classified India as lower middle income country and why around 84 million people i.e. 6% of its total population lives below poverty line with a meager income even when SRI LANLA has climbed to the upper middle income group which is not even near to India’s number of billionaires. The prime reason behind this contrasting situation is UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH AND INCOME among Indian citizens. According to World Inequality Report India is one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of income.

The top 1% of India’s population own 58% of the wealth while the richest 10% owns 80% of it in 2021 of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half owns 13.1 % with an average wealth of Rs 66,280 . Statistically, INDIA’S share of the world’s extreme poor is higher than its share of the world population. As per the Multi Dimensional Poverty Index prepared by Niti Ayog , one in every four people in India was multidimensionally poor. The Agriculture Sector Contributes the least in the GDP of the country but contrastingly it employs the most number of people which reflects the prevalent Disguised Unemployment in the country, which further reflects that when a person seems to be employed he or she may not actually be employed. Disguised Unemployment is another reason adding to the inequality of income. Unemployment, inflation, tax evasion, illiteracy and a hundreds of more reasons add to this inequality.

This is why even after ranking third in the countries with most billionaires INDIA lags behind in the list of countries with equal income and wealth and ranks as a lower middle income country.

There is an alarming need for the policy makers to design a framework which provides a solution to this situation.