Understanding the Indian Economy from the Post-Reforms of 1991, Volume II

CHAPTER 9

Inequality of Income and Wealth in India

Introduction: Both between countries and within them, deep disparities in human development remain. Poverty and inequality seem to be the talking point across the globe. In recent times, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014) has generated global attention toward the rise in economic inequality. Economic and social inequality is a major problem, implicated in poverty, ill health, and exploitation. Inequality in the world is increasing since the 1980s and it is also widely seen as unfair; yet, action against it has been sporadic and often ineffective. Three-fourths of the world’s wealth is concentrated in a few hands. Rich people hold the talisman of resource control. In the ...