Sign In
Learn bits
Economy
Mahesh

24/01/24 07:05 AM IST

The rising gap in incomes

In News
  • According to a recent report by the State Bank of India (SBI), India has witnessed a significant fall in inequality over the last decade.
Major takeaways
  • The report claims that the Gini coefficient — a standard measure of inequality that ranges from 0, indicating perfect equality, to 1, indicating perfect inequality — has fallen from 0.472 in 2014-15 to 0.402 in 2022-23.
  • A fall of almost 15% in the Gini coefficient indicates a significant reduction in inequality.
  • Incomes of the top 10% have grown faster than the bottom 30%, with polarisation largely seen amongst self-employed workers.
  • Only those individuals who earn income from work are considered, excluding those who work as unpaid family helpers (a large proportion of whom are women)
  • The category of the self-employed includes own-account workers — such as individual farmers, roadside hawkers, etc. — and those who are self-employed but also employ other workers.
  • The Gini for the self-employed workers rises from 0.37 to 0.3765, an increase of 1.5%.
  • For regular and casual wage workers, the Gini coefficients register falls of 1.7% and 4.8%, respectively.
  • The Gini coefficient is an aggregate measure, which delivers an estimate of inequality considering all incomes in a given sample.
  • It is possible for the Gini coefficient to register a fall in inequality even with a divergence between different classes of income-earners.
  • The income of the top 10% of self-employed individuals was 8.3 times that of the bottom 10% in 2022-23, a significant increase as compared to 2017-18.
  • The entire polarisation in incomes has come from divergence in incomes of the self-employed.
Concerns
  • The analysis is conducted on taxpayer data, and a majority of income-earners fall outside the tax net.
  • According to data from the 2022-23 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), nearly 80% of income-earners earn less than ₹2.5 lakh per annum — the minimum taxable amount.
Source- The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

23 Sep

Quad grouping

'Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the United States, where he will participate in the fourth Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware.' Quad s the grouping of four de

Read More

21 Sep

India Achieves Tier 1 Status in Global Cybersecurity Index 2024

' India has secured Tier 1 status in the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2024, published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).' The GCI is a comprehensive assessm

Read More

21 Sep

A new White Revolution

'Operation Flood, launched in 1970, ushered in the White Revolution and transformed the dairy sector in India.' Dairy cooperatives procured 660 lakh kg of milk per day in 2023-2

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps