Over the last one year, total wealth of India has increased by $625.5 billion, but it is heavily skewed with the wealth of the top 1 percent increasing by 46 percent and that of the bottom 50 percent rising a paltry 3 percent, revealed a report on wealth inequality on Monday.
In India, the fortunes of billionaires grew by Rs 3,500 crore ($0.5 billion) a day in 2019, a steep increase from Rs 2,200 crore ($0.31 billion) in 2018. Consequently, the total wealth of billionaires rose from $325.5 billion (Rs 2,272,500 crore) in 2017 to $368 billion (Rs 2,607,900 crore) in 2019. However, the poorest decile continues to live in debt as it has since 2004, according to the Time to Care report released by rights group Oxfam.
Consumer goods industry accounts for the maximum number of billionaires from India with 15. Pharmaceutical industry has more than 10 billionaires in the country. Oxfam notes that billionaires from the pharmaceutical industry is a rarity in developing nations.
To put the vast wealth inequality in sharp relief, the top 10 percent of the population holds 74.3 percent of the total national wealth and the top 1 percent hold a staggering 42.5 percent. The bottom 50 percent, on the other hand, owns just 2.8 percent of the national wealth.
Further, the bottom 90 percent of the populace accounts for 25.7 percent of the national wealth.
The wealth of the top nine billionaires in the country is equivalent to that of the bottom 50 percent of the total population.
Oxfam’s calculations are based on the latest data sources available, including from the Credit Suisse Research Institute's Global Wealth Databook 2019 and Forbes' 2019 Billionaires List.
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