New Delhi: A new report by Oxfam India has again highlighted the sharp rich-poor divide in the country. It has stated that the richest 21 Indian billionaires have more wealth than 700 million Indians.
From the time the pandemic began till November last year, billionaires in India have seen their wealth surge by 121%, or Rs 3,608 crore per day in real terms. With Rs 54.12 lakh crore wealth, India’s 100 richest can fund the entire Union Budget for more than 18 months!
The report titled “Survival of the Richest: The India Narrative,” only 5% of Indians own more than 60% of the country’s wealth, while the bottom 50% have only 3%. In 2022, the richest man in India saw a 46% gain in wealth.
The combined net worth of India’s top 10 richest individuals is now $335.7 billion, up 32.8% from 2021. 166 billionaires live in India today, compared to 102 in 2020.
Meanwhile, India is facing many challenges including hunger, growing suicide, unemployment, inflation, worsening law & order and health crises. There were 350 million hungry Indians by 2022, up from 190 million in 2018 and this led to 65% of all deaths among children under the age of 5 which is far higher than the rest of the world.
The wealth of billionaires is increasing by $2.7 billion per day even as inflation surpasses the wages of 1.7 billion workers.
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