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> In fact, this has been a long-term structural trend that began even before the pandemic. India has been getting increasingly more unequal, with the top 10% of

by duxup 2y ago

> In fact, this has been a long-term structural trend that began even before the pandemic. India has been getting increasingly more unequal, with the top 10% of Indians now holding 57.7% of national income compared with 34% in 1990. The bottom half have seen their share of national income fall from 22.2% to 15%. Yikes, and it’s not like there’s some magic in the free market that “helps” those folks… if anything they’re a market that companies might avoid….

Snoozle 2y ago
I suppose theoretically, as wealth grows, the competition for labor to create that wealth will elevate those at the bottom.
- suraci 2y ago
  what the theory it is?
addicted 2y ago
Let’s run some numbers for the bottom half. I don’t know what they mean by income data, but let’s use the GDP as a proxy. 2025 GDP (Current USD) - $3.5Tn (actually 2023, but it’s probably still close) Population - 1.45Bn Bottom Half Population - 725mm Bottom Half share - 15% Bottom half share of GDP - $525Bn Bottom half GDP per capita - $725 1990 GDP (current USD) - $320Bn Population - 870mm Bottom Half population - 435mm Bottom Half Share - 22.2% Bottom Half Share of GDP - $71Bn Bottom Half GDP per capita - $163 So the bottom half per capita GDP in current USD has risen from $163 to $725, almost a 4.5x increase. The increase in inequality is not good, but this isn’t the economic catastrophe for India’s poor that this article is presenting it as. In fact, a 4.5x increase in per capita income in 35 years is a significant achievement for a country of Indias size and diversity. It of course pales in comparison to what China has achieved, but what doesn’t pale in comparison to what China has achieved.
- anigbrowl 2y ago
  I question the utility of GDP as a proxy here. Unless it takes account of purchasing power, it seems to me that those nominal gains could easily have been inflated away. The average inflation over that period has been ~7%. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/ind/india/inflation-rate-cpi https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/ind/ind... The problem with income inequality is that the pie is unlikely to keep growing forever, but your part of it can definitely keep shrinking. The underlying report goes into more detail of the mechanics. https://marcellus.in/blogs/indias-middle-class-is-losing-ground-to-the-rich-and-the-poor/ https://marcellus.in/blogs/indias-middle-class-is-losing-gro... (to read it you have to affirm that you're not in the US, since the content could be construed as investment advice - this seems excessively cautious to me, but if you say you are in the US it will boot you to a generic landing page)
- bjkkkjduid 2y ago
  [dead]
- ashoeafoot 2y ago
  https://news.climate.columbia.edu/wp-content/data-viz/heat-humidity-map/ https://news.climate.columbia.edu/wp-content/data-viz/heat-h... becoming longterm uninhabitable ?
- duxup 2y ago
  According to the article the folks at the bottom have no room for discretionary spending. So that increase they're getting, where is it going?
jasdi 2y ago
Actually its more a question of what others can learn from them, than the other way around because of these constraints. The first time I was shown a case study of Amul (cooperative model of food production), it was a really eye opening moment, cause they had reached massive scale, profitable, invested in quality/innovation, really super creative (on the marketing side without any great budget) and most importantly Sustainable. Like me if you have studied Dominoes, KFC and McDonalds this is not supposed to be possible. It shows how constraints in the local environment lead to innovation and totally different models that work. Anyone getting thrown into the deep end of the Indian market, equipped with Western models are quickly confronted by assumptions that don't hold, and then they come up with stuff we don't see in the west. Just look at their Dabbawalas (decentralized supply-chains/logistics), UPI (disintermediating Mastercard and Visa), IPL (no one thought cricket could compete when literally less than 10 countries playing the sport) etc Western companies built their scalable models by optimizing for capital-heavy, consumption-driven economiess, but that doesn’t mean those models are the only viable ones. India (and other low-consumption economies) often find more sustainable ways to solve the same problems because there’s no safety net of endless VC funding, mass credit, or impulse spending to prop things up. Most Western companies operate in winner-takes-all mode (Amazon crushes small retailers, Uber kills taxis). But Indian models like UPI, Amul, Kirana networks show models of growth in a more cooperative manner. Imho the world needs more Amuls than McDonalds.
- koolhead17 2y ago
  well said.

by duxup 2y ago

Snoozle 2y ago

I suppose theoretically, as wealth grows, the competition for labor to create that wealth will elevate those at the bottom.

suraci 2y ago
what the theory it is?

addicted 2y ago

Let’s run some numbers for the bottom half. I don’t know what they mean by income data, but let’s use the GDP as a proxy. 2025 GDP (Current USD) - $3.5Tn (actually 2023, but it’s probably still close) Population - 1.45Bn Bottom Half Population - 725mm Bottom Half share - 15% Bottom half share of GDP - $525Bn Bottom half GDP per capita - $725 1990 GDP (current USD) - $320Bn Population - 870mm Bottom Half population - 435mm Bottom Half Share - 22.2% Bottom Half Share of GDP - $71Bn Bottom Half GDP per capita - $163 So the bottom half per capita GDP in current USD has risen from $163 to $725, almost a 4.5x increase. The increase in inequality is not good, but this isn’t the economic catastrophe for India’s poor that this article is presenting it as. In fact, a 4.5x increase in per capita income in 35 years is a significant achievement for a country of Indias size and diversity. It of course pales in comparison to what China has achieved, but what doesn’t pale in comparison to what China has achieved.

anigbrowl 2y ago
I question the utility of GDP as a proxy here. Unless it takes account of purchasing power, it seems to me that those nominal gains could easily have been inflated away. The average inflation over that period has been ~7%. https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/ind/india/inflation-rate-cpi https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/ind/ind... The problem with income inequality is that the pie is unlikely to keep growing forever, but your part of it can definitely keep shrinking. The underlying report goes into more detail of the mechanics. https://marcellus.in/blogs/indias-middle-class-is-losing-ground-to-the-rich-and-the-poor/ https://marcellus.in/blogs/indias-middle-class-is-losing-gro... (to read it you have to affirm that you're not in the US, since the content could be construed as investment advice - this seems excessively cautious to me, but if you say you are in the US it will boot you to a generic landing page)
bjkkkjduid 2y ago
[dead]
ashoeafoot 2y ago
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/wp-content/data-viz/heat-humidity-map/ https://news.climate.columbia.edu/wp-content/data-viz/heat-h... becoming longterm uninhabitable ?
duxup 2y ago
According to the article the folks at the bottom have no room for discretionary spending. So that increase they're getting, where is it going?

jasdi 2y ago

Actually its more a question of what others can learn from them, than the other way around because of these constraints. The first time I was shown a case study of Amul (cooperative model of food production), it was a really eye opening moment, cause they had reached massive scale, profitable, invested in quality/innovation, really super creative (on the marketing side without any great budget) and most importantly Sustainable. Like me if you have studied Dominoes, KFC and McDonalds this is not supposed to be possible. It shows how constraints in the local environment lead to innovation and totally different models that work. Anyone getting thrown into the deep end of the Indian market, equipped with Western models are quickly confronted by assumptions that don't hold, and then they come up with stuff we don't see in the west. Just look at their Dabbawalas (decentralized supply-chains/logistics), UPI (disintermediating Mastercard and Visa), IPL (no one thought cricket could compete when literally less than 10 countries playing the sport) etc Western companies built their scalable models by optimizing for capital-heavy, consumption-driven economiess, but that doesn’t mean those models are the only viable ones. India (and other low-consumption economies) often find more sustainable ways to solve the same problems because there’s no safety net of endless VC funding, mass credit, or impulse spending to prop things up. Most Western companies operate in winner-takes-all mode (Amazon crushes small retailers, Uber kills taxis). But Indian models like UPI, Amul, Kirana networks show models of growth in a more cooperative manner. Imho the world needs more Amuls than McDonalds.

koolhead17 2y ago
well said.