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India added more billionaires, but number of poor doubled: Oxfam

Last year, 40 billionaires were added to the 142 list even as the Covid-19 infection caused the second wave in the nation and pushed the health infrastructure crematoriums to breaking point. 

India added more billionaires, but number of poor doubled: Oxfam - ADT
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New Delhi, First Published Jan 17, 2022, 3:49 PM IST

The freshly released report of the Oxfam Davos shows India's wealthiest owns doubled fortunes during the Covid-19 crisis that has ravaged the country and worsened poverty. 

Last year 40 billionaires were added to the 142 list, even as the Covid-19 infection caused the second wave in the nation and pushed the health infrastructure crematoriums to breaking point. They reported almost $720 billion in combined fortune, more than the poorest 40 per cent of the population, the group said on the rising inequality. 

Values surged globally from stock pricing to crypto, and commodities have jumped in the pandemic. The media reports claim the world's 500 wealthiest people added more than $1 trillion to their net worths last year. Oxfam said India's urban unemployment climbed as high as 15 per cent last May, and food insecurity deteriorated. India has more billionaires than France, Sweden and Switzerland combined. The India supplement of the global report said state policies, including the abolition of a wealth tax in 2016, steep cuts in corporate levies, and an increase in indirect taxation, are among the factors that make the rich richer. However, the national minimum wage remained at Rs 178 i.e. $2.4 a day since 2020.

Fewer national funding to local administrations amid privatisations, as growing health and education sectors have further increased the inequality. Oxfam added the country is home to a quarter of the world's undernourished people, referring to the World Food Programme. 

The report said, "Unfortunately, not only has the taxation policy of the Indian government been pro-rich, it has also deprived India's States of important fiscal resources both particularly damaging in the context of the COVID-19 crisis."

Also Read: Keeping schools closed in view of COVID-19 not justified: World Bank Education Director

Oxfam recommends the government impose a 1 per cent surcharge on the wealthier 10 per cent of the population to invest in health and education. It stressed that the fortune of India's ten richest billionaires would be enough to support the school and higher education of the nation's children for more than 25 years. 
 
India is in line with sub-Saharan Africa as 84 per cent of the household suffers a drop in income during the pandemic. In 2020, the poor in the south Asian nation doubled to 134 million, more than Pew research had estimated, said Oxfam. The report refers to the official crime data; the self-employed and the unemployed committed the most suicides.

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