NEW DELHI – While India celebrates its rise on the billionaire index, it is “slipping miserably on the hunger index.” The richest 1% now control over 40% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 50% survive on just 15% of national income. This is not fate, says a new report — it is a policy choice.
The Wealth Tracker India 2026, published by the Centre for Financial Accountability and the Tax The Top campaign, lays bare a country splitting into two Indias: one where a handful of individuals amass thousands of crores at breathtaking speed, and another where millions fall into debt traps just to make ends meet.
“Today India is witnessing inequality at levels that are comparable to colonial times. The country’s richest 1% control over 40% of the national wealth. The top 10% capture nearly 60% of national income while the bottom 50% of the population survives on just 15%,” noted the report.
The Gap in Numbers: A K‑Shaped Recovery
The report traces India’s wealth inequality over 100 years and finds two sharp turning points: independence (when the gap narrowed), and the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s‑90s (when the gap exploded).
“The red line takes flight giddy in the glitter and glitz of the growth story, while the bottom sinks simultaneously. And this is not an Indian story, it has been a global phenomenon,” argued the report.
Between 2019 and 2025, the number of Indians with net worth above ₹1,000 crore grew by 77%. But their combined wealth grew by an even more staggering 227%. In other words: the club is getting bigger, but those already inside are pulling further and further ahead.
“The floor is rising. But the ceiling has disappeared entirely,” It said.
By 2025, just 1,688 individuals held ₹166 lakh crore — nearly half of India’s GDP.
Two Men vs. The Republic
The report zooms in on the very top. Between 2019 and 2025:
· Mukesh Ambani’s wealth grew by 153% (from ₹3.62 lakh crore to ₹9.15 lakh crore)
· Gautam Adani’s wealth grew by 625% (from ₹1.11 lakh crore to ₹8.02 lakh crore)
“Mukesh Ambani was making INR 90 crore per hour during the pandemic when the bottom 24 percent of the people in the country were earning under INR 3,000 per month. Gautam Adani’s total fortune increased by 728% in a year.”
The combined wealth of India’s top five billionaires increased by 400% in just six years — an addition of nearly ₹19.9 lakh crore.
Meanwhile, household debt nearly doubled in five years, from ₹69.9 lakh crore (2019‑20) to ₹136.6 lakh crore (2024‑25). Most of this borrowing is not for buying assets, but simply to survive.
“Ordinary Indians have had to take loans — bulk of which are not for productive purposes or for buying assets, but simply to make their ends meet.”
The Caste Gap Within the Wealth Gap
The report also uncovers a deep caste dimension. Drawing on World Inequality Lab data:
“Nearly 90% of all billionaire wealth in India was held by upper castes. Scheduled Tribes had zero representation. OBCs held just under 10%, and Scheduled Castes a meagre 2.6%.”
And the Modi years have seen this gap widen further: between 2014 and 2022, the OBC share of billionaire wealth was cut in half (from 20% to below 10%), while the upper caste share climbed from 80% to 90%.
“Our billionaire class is, in fact, an upper caste club.”
At the broader societal level, upper castes — just over a quarter of India’s population — own nearly 55% of the country’s total wealth. SCs and STs each hold wealth shares that are less than half their population shares.
“The discrepancy we see at the top is only a reflection of the disparity perpetuated over centuries by caste in the society.”
What a Tiny Tax on the Top Could Do for the Bottom
The report is not merely a catalogue of despair. It calculates exactly how a modest 2% wealth tax on the ultra-rich could begin to close the gap.
· A 2% tax on Mukesh Ambani alone (₹1,01,427 crore) could provide free laptops to 1.85 crore Class 10 students three times over, or fund nearly two years of universal maternity rights for 2.85 crore women.
· A 2% tax on Gautam Adani (₹87,268 crore) could fund over two years of primary healthcare nationwide, or provide 87 crore free LPG cylinders.
· A 2% tax on Savitri Jindal (₹25,320 crore) could fund nine years of ST scholarships and 14 years of SC scholarships.
If extended to all 1,688 ultra-rich families through a progressive wealth tax (2%‑6%) plus a one‑third inheritance tax, the annual revenue would be ₹10.63 lakh crore — almost exactly the entire Union Budget allocation for education, health, food, agriculture, housing and rural development combined.
“This single pool of resources is roughly equal to the entire annual spending on these core sectors that sustain livelihoods and welfare across the country.”
‘A Policy Choice, Not Fate’
The report quotes a recent G20‑commissioned study by Joseph Stiglitz, which found that wealth gaps have widened sharply over 25 years, and that these outcomes are ultimately reversible through progressive taxation.
“The phenomenal concentration of wealth has the least to do with fate and has everything to do with policy choices our governments have made.”
India abolished its wealth tax in 2016. Since then, corporate tax rates have been cut, banks have written off nearly ₹20 lakh crore in loans (benefitting mainly the top 1%), and social spending has stagnated.
“While the government is reluctant to spend a dime more on social security and welfare, it has informed in the Lok Sabha that Indian Banks have written off an astonishing ₹19,66,554 crore of loans during the last 11 years benefitting mainly the top 1%.”
The Bottom Line
The report ends with a stark political question:
“Ultimately, this is a matter of political will: whether we adopt an alternative, pro‑people vision for our future — one that ensures the well‑being of the masses of India — or whether we continue down the same path that has left crores of us in despair while enabling super‑profits for the super‑rich.”
“Such levels of inequality, cronyism and monopoly will only corrupt the very sinews of our democracy. Unless we put a stop to it.”
This article was originally published in The Hindustan Gazette and you can read here.
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