Indian Millionaires Control 54% of Nation’s Wealth; Also, World’s 2nd Most Unequal Country In Wealth Creation

‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed’ – Mahatma Gandhi

No, the point of this story is not about the evils of wealth creation or supporting the fact that becoming rich is same as becoming evil.

But the point is equality in wealth creation, and creation of a society wherein everyone gets a chance to become rich, equally. And unfortunately, in both of these frontiers, India is giving its worst ever performance.

In terms of wealth creation, infact, we are world’s 2nd most unequal country, only after Russia. Although we are right now world’s 7th wealthiest nation of the world, with $5600 billion in possession of the super rich; although the average wealth of a rich Indian increased by 400% in the last 10 years, we are doing very less for the underprivileged and the poor.

As per a latest report by South Africa based New World Wealth, an organization which tracks and reports the state of global wealth creation, dollar millionaires in India control 54% of nation’s wealth.

This simply means that less than 1% of India’s population controls more than half of nation’s wealth, and this is indeed a scary situation. In India, there are 120 crore+ people, but only 2.36 lakh ‘high net worth’ Indians collectively own $1.5 trillion of wealth, which translates into $6.3 million wealth for each high net worth Indian citizen.

The report said, “The higher the proportion the more unequal the country is. For instance, if millionaires control over 50 per cent of a country’s wealth, then there is very little space for a meaningful middle class..”

The only country which fared worse than India is Russia, where 62% of the wealth is controlled by dollar millionaires, and where dollar billionaires control 26 of the nation’s overall wealth.

Japan is the world’s most equal country in wealth creation, as dollar millionaires control only 22% of the nation’s wealth.

No doubt there are more billionaires in Bombay, than in Tokyo, but atleast wealth is equally distributed in Japan, thereby creating an equal and just society. Is there any point in making rich, more richer, if only 5 super-rich Indians – Ambani, Premji, Shanghvi, Mittal & Mistry control half of total Indian billionaires wealth?

Australia is world’s 2nd most equal country for wealth creation, with 28% of nation’s wealth in possession of their dollar millionaires, followed by USA with 32% share.

Wealth accumulating with few citizens give them absolute power – power to control political and social platform, which can give them more power and more money. The middle class will continue to slog their way for their survival, and the poor will become more poor.

If we ask any social scientist, then he will admit that revolutions are born within such circumstances, and entire civilization gets transformed.

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