Inequality

Story hook

On 20 March 2024, three economists at the World Inequality Lab — Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, and Nitin Bharti — released a paper titled "Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj." The opening table told the story in a line: in 2022-23, the top 1% of Indians captured 22.6% of national income and 40.1% of national wealth — the highest share in the top 1% since 1922, the year for which data first exist, when British India's commercial elite had a comparable grip.

The phrase the authors used — "Billionaire Raj" — caught fire. In the Lok Sabha debate that followed, both ruling and opposition benches cited the paper, drawing opposite conclusions. The government pointed to declining headcount poverty (NITI Aayog MPI dropped 135 million out of multi-dimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21). Critics pointed to the rise in the top 0.1% share (from 6% in 1991 to 10.9% in 2023) and to the Hurun India Rich List showing 271 billionaires in India in 2024, third in the world after the US and China.

This is the lens through which India's growth story is now being read: not just the speed of growth, but who gets the gains. Beneath the headline lies a forest of measurement — the Gini coefficient, the Lorenz curve, the Palma ratio, the Bottom 50% share, the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Each tells a different slice. None tells the full story.

Why this matters for UPSC

Inequality crosses economy, sociology, and policy — the kind of topic that yields a Mains GS-III question every other year. Expect at least one Prelims MCQ a year on Gini interpretation, Kuznets hypothesis, the Lorenz curve, and reports — World Inequality Report, Oxfam, NITI Aayog MPI, NFHS. Mains rewards engagement with the inclusive growth debate — does growth reduce or worsen inequality? The Piketty-Chancel-Bharti 2024 paper is now mandatory citation. Interview boards probe redistribution vs growth trade-offs and the wealth tax debate.