India's richest 1% have highest concentration of wealth in decades: Study

NEW DELHI — The wealth concentrated in the richest one per cent of India's population is at its highest in six decades, and the percentage share of income exceeds that of countries including Brazil and the United States, research group the World Inequality Lab found.

Since India, which won its independence from UK in 1947, opened its markets to foreign investment in 1992, its number of billionaires has surged.

"The 'Billionaire Raj' headed by India's modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces," the authors said.

By the end of 2023, India's richest citizens owned 40.1 per cent of the country's wealth, the highest since 1961, and their share of total income was 22.6 per cent, the most since 1922, according to the study, whose authors include Dr Nitin Kumar Bharti and Professor Thomas Piketty.

In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected on a mandate for development and economic reforms.

His critics say his last two terms in office have been characterised by a widening gap between the rich and rural poor as India's economy grew at 8.4 per cent — its fastest in one-and-half years — in the final three months of 2023.

India's main opposition party Congress has raised the issue of the Modi government's closeness to billionaires, in rallies ahead of national polls that will start from April 16.

The World Inequality Lab said factors, including a lack of education, have trapped some people in low-paid jobs and depressed the growth of the bottom 50 per cent and middle 40 per cent of Indians.

Data from Forbes billionaire rankings shows the number of Indians with net wealth exceeding US$1 billion (S$1.34 billion) rose from one in 1991, to 162 in 2022.

Asia's two richest men, Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani and Adani Group's Gautam Adani, are Indian.

The top one per cent of India's 92 million adults own an average of 54 million rupees (S$869,400) in wealth. Of this group, the 10,000 wealthiest individuals possess an average of 22.6 billion rupees in wealth — 16,763 times the country's average.

In December, the Indian government's chief economic adviser said subsidised grain distribution, spending on education and health, and direct cash transfers via a rural jobs scheme have helped to distribute income more equally.

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