A World Inequality Lab paper reveals significant land inequality in rural India, with the top 10% of households owning 44% of the land, while 46% are landless. The study highlights the impact of historical institutions, social stratification, and agro-ecological conditions on land distribution.
'Previously, contributing only 25 per cent of material costs, states now face burdens of 40 per cent to 100 per cent of total costs, ensuring poorer states will curb project approvals, directly stifling work demand.'
While other backward classes had a share of 9 per cent, there were no scheduled tribe billionaires.
The paper said that the taxation proposal needs to be accompanied by explicit redistributive policies to support the poor, lower castes, and middle classes.
Inequality in India has skyrocketed since early 2000s, with the income and wealth share of top 1 per cent population rising to 22.6 per cent and 40.1 per cent, respectively, in 2022-23, according to a working paper. The paper titled 'Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj' said between 2014-15 and 2022-23, the rise of top-end inequality has been particularly pronounced in terms of wealth concentration.
Wealth, which can broadly be a measure of assets held as opposed to income earned, is unequally distributed.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan took charge of India's central bank when the rupee seemed to be in a tailspin while the country was facing runaway inflation.
The top companies with a striking gap in pay between the senior-most executives and median employees in 2017-2018 belonged mostly to sectors such as information technology, auto and engineering.
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