Here's a pretty decent technical note which covers definitions and quantifies 'middle class' in India: https://www.cgdev.org/doc/2013_MiddleClassIndia_Technical

Here's a pretty decent technical note which covers definitions and quantifies 'middle class' in India: https://www.cgdev.org/doc/2013_MiddleClassIndia_TechnicalNote_CGDNote.pdf https://www.cgdev.org/doc/2013_MiddleClassIndia_TechnicalNot... Most data that I'm familiar with is from the National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure (NSHIE) by the NCAER, or the NSS by the gov. But they hold these surveys rarely, I'm hoping to see an update to the 2011 NSHIE data for example, this year. Another decent study building on NSHIE data: http://www.thesuniljain.com/files/thirdparty/NCAER%20How%20India%20Earns%20Spends%20and%20Saves.pdf http://www.thesuniljain.com/files/thirdparty/NCAER%20How%20I... Does anyone know where to get more recent data? In any case, the middle class in India is quite small, probably around 100m people, but definitely not above 200m. What's somewhat left unsaid by the Economist is that growth prospects are pretty good, with the middle class group doubling less than every decade, in addition to growth of the rich group. India will also be this century's most populous country, outgrowing China probably next decade and will keep growing a few decades after China's population will have started shrinking. And looking at the age-demographics, China is headed into difficult territory whereas India will have mostly young (i.e. productive) population for a long time. So I agree with most of this article, but it definitely also leaves a few things unsaid. In terms of India's attractiveness as a new global market, I'm cautiously more optimistic about India's position than most, but not by much.