India’s income and wealth inequality has reportedly surpassed levels seen during British colonial rule, according to financial analyst Hardik Joshi. Citing figures from the World Inequality Lab Working Paper 2024 and the World Inequality Database, Joshi claims the top 1% of India’s population now control 40.1% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 50% together own just 6.4%.
In a post published on LinkedIn, Joshi further states that the top 10% earn over 57.7% of India’s total income, painting a stark picture of economic disparity in the world’s most populous democracy.
“This isn’t an accident. It’s policy,” Joshi writes, arguing that India’s inequality crisis has been structurally created and politically sustained. He points to a web of choices that favour the elite—tax structures that spare the rich, diluted labour protections, and a corporate landscape increasingly dominated by a few big players.
He goes further to accuse those in power of benefiting directly from the inequality. “They fund elections. They shape the media narrative. They lobby against redistribution,” he claims. In contrast, welfare schemes for the poor are branded as handouts, while the wealthy continue to enjoy subsidies and tax breaks without scrutiny.
One major cause of the imbalance, Joshi notes, lies in who benefits from India’s growth. Gains from booming sectors like real estate and the stock market are largely flowing to those who already have wealth. With limited social safety nets, weak union power, and minimal worker protections, the majority of Indians have no meaningful way to build or pass on wealth.
Small businesses struggle to survive in the shadow of large corporate houses. And because capital ownership is concentrated, profits are too. “Half the country is fighting for crumbs while a tiny fraction lives in unimaginable luxury,” Joshi writes, drawing a sharp contrast between the India that shops at luxury malls and the one that skips meals due to inflation.
For Joshi, the problem isn’t that India is poor—it’s that its wealth isn’t reaching enough people. “We produce enough wealth. We just don’t share it fairly,” he states, calling inequality the country’s real crisis. He urges political leaders to step up, not with band-aid schemes but with bold structural reforms.
He advocates for stronger taxation of wealth, better wages and protections for workers, increased investment in public health and education, and measures to prevent corporate monopolies. But even as these solutions are discussed, he wonders aloud—“Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”