Who Owns All The Wealth In India?

On January 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a dinner for top business honchos of the globe in Davos, Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum meet. During his trip, the PM would discuss with over 70 heads of states and governments India's future engagements with the international community. Modi is seeking "serious attention" of world leaders on existing and emerging challenges to the contemporary global systems.

However, the findings of a survey, released hours before the start of the meet in Davos, show his government faces major challenges at the home front. The benefits of economic growth in India, reveal the findings of the survey by international rights group Oxfam, continue to “concentrate in fewer hands”.

The world is no better. The global economy, too, enables the wealthy to gather vast wealth while hundreds of millions struggle to survive.

"2017 saw an unprecedented increase in the number of billionaires, at a rate of one every two days. Billionaire wealth has risen by an average of 13 per cent a year since 2010 ─ six times faster than the wages of ordinary workers, which have risen by a yearly average of just two per cent," the report titled Reward Work, Not Wealth says.

Let us now look at where the wealth in India is concentrated.

Getting richer, getting poorer: The richest one per cent people in India had 73 per cent of the wealth generated in the country in 2016. On the other hand, 67 crore Indians, comprising the population's poorest half, saw their wealth rise by only one per cent. Last year's survey had showed that India's richest one per cent held a huge 58 per cent of the country's total wealth, higher than the global figure of about 50 per cent. Globally, 82 per cent of the wealth generated in 2016 went to the one per cent, while 3.7 billion people that account for the poorest half of population saw no increase in their wealth.

The number game: The wealth of India's richest one per cent people increased by over Rs 20.9 lakh crore during 2017, an amount equivalent to total Budget of the Central government in 2017-18, points out the survey.

Order of the day: In India, it will take 941 years for a wage worker in rural India getting the minimum wage to earn what a top-paid executive at a leading Indian garment company earns in a year. In the US, it takes slightly over one working day for a CEO to earn what an ordinary worker makes in a year, says the survey of 120,000 people done across 10 countries.

It would take around 17.5 days for the best paid executive at a top Indian garment company to earn what a minimum wage worker in rural India will earn in their lifetime.

The key factors driving up rewards for shareholders and corporate bosses at the expense of workers' pay and conditions, Oxfam said, included erosion of workers' rights; excessive influence of big business over government policy-making and the relentless corporate drive to minimise costs to maximise returns to shareholders.

The richie-rich club: With 17 new addition to the list in 2016, India now has a total of 101 billionaires. The Indian billionaires' wealth increased to over Rs 20.7 lakh crore ─ increasing during last year by Rs 4.89 lakh crore, an amount sufficient to finance 85 per cent of the all states' Budget on health and education.

Inheritance of gain: India's top 10 per cent of population holds 73 per cent of the wealth and 37 per cent of India's billionaires have inherited family wealth. They control 51 per cent of the total wealth of billionaires in the country.

Her share: Nine out of 10 billionaires in India are men. In India, there are only four women billionaires and three of them inherited family wealth.