-ThePrint.in Three richest states in India are three times as rich as three poorest, which is why we can’t ignore spatial inequality. In a recent review of James Crabtree’s new book, The Billionaire Raj, also reviewed by me, columnist and part-time member of PM Modi’s Economic Advisory Council, Surjit Bhalla, pays my co-author, political economist and presently data guru for the Indian National Congress, Praveen Chakravarty, the following compliment: “In a much...

-The Hindu Why measuring inequality is not the same as measuring changes in the level of poverty in India In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion on increasing inequality within several countries of the world, including India, particularly after the publication of Thomas Piketty’s book on inequality. It is true that rising inequality has adverse economic and social consequences. The Gini coefficient or other measures of inequality are being...

-The Indian Express More transparency is needed for Indian society to have an informed debate about rising inequality In a recent study titled ‘Indian income inequality dynamics (1922-2014): From British Raj to Billionaire Raj?’ published on WID.world, we presented new estimates of the distribution of national income in India, from 1922, when the income tax was introduced, up to 2014. In this study, we systematically combine the best available data at hand...

-Down to Earth Income inequality makes agrarian crisis challenging; inequality is worse among farmers than the formal economy Economists Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty recently concluded after a long study that inequality is at its peak in India. It is embedded in popular conscience: “Top 1 per cent of earners captured 22 per cent of total income in the country.” Their study–covering consumption, government accounts and income tax data from 1922...

-Livemint.com Income inequality in India has risen over the last three decades and a half with the top 10% of earners cornering 55% of the national income in 2016, says report New Delhi: Income inequality in India has worsened over the past three-and-a-half decades and the top 10% of earners now corner more than half of the country’s national income in 2016. Their share was 30% of the national income in 1980,...