The rich on a roll

The rich in India are on a roll. The number of billionaires in this nation skyrocketed in the last 10 years – a season of economic and political stability – from just 70 to nearly 300. Leading the pack, of course, are the likes of Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, who have all kept the ruling elite in good humour. Curiously, as a global tracking agency reported, much of the developed world except for the US has lesser billionaires than the hefty pack India boasts of today. While the US has 873 billionaires, Communist China comes closer with 823 billionaires, while capitalist nations like the UK reported having just 150 and Germany 141 billionaires. Clearly, the global economic might is now getting concentrated in the Asian nations of China and India, while the US ably stood its ground through a century of mega growth there.
Note the other side. Consumer spending in India is driven by just 10 per cent of the 1.4billion population. They form the elite, the rich, the business communities, government officials and corrupt politicians. Together, they comprise the top 10 percent affluent class, who have money to splurge, influence to peddle and make a heaven out of their surroundings. By contrast, the poor and the lower middle-class, forming around a billion whose sweat and energy drive the nation, lead a hand-to-mouth existence, barely limiting their purchases to daily essentials with their low income, and end up in untimely deaths. The nearly 80 years of ‘desi’ rule of Independent India through the system of democracy or people’s power let this one-billion strong population down badly. What they get, as in old Cuba of Fidel Castro, are free or subsidized rations, which keep tempers under control. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘blah-blahs’ from the podium, extolling the virtues of modern India’s trillions-strong economy, hide this reality. He’s satisfied with what he’s doing, and keeping India poor for all practical purposes. The chatter at the apex – forming 10 per cent of the population – boosts his ego; the rest 90 per cent are at the beck and call of politicos, and lining up before polling booths every five years in what’s hailed as the periodic celebrations and festivals of democracy.
Recent studies testified to a K-shaped economic recovery after the Covid pandemic, noting that the rich here continued to prosper while the poor faced a serious decline in their purchasing power. With prices steadily going up, most private sectors saw no significant or matching salary increase, while the government sector staff are well taken care of. The top 10 per cent Indians now hold 58 per cent of the national wealth – a sharp increase from their 34 per cent in 1990. The bottom half of the population saw their share declining from 22 per cent of the national wealth to just 15 per cent. Can this be called equitable growth? Certainly not!