In accordance with the Indian supplement of Oxfam report “The Inequality Virus”, the top 100 Indian billionaires increased their wealth by 35% during the lockdown to Rs 12,97,822 crore.
- With this amount, a cheque of Rs 94,045 can be provided to 138 million poorest Indians.
- The report was released on the opening day of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Davos Dialogues’.
- Notably, the wealth of Indian billionaires increased by 90% since 2009 to $422.9 billion.
- India ranked 6th in the world after the United States (US), China, Germany, Russia, and France where billionaires increased their wealth in COVID times.
Key Points:
–As per the report, an unskilled worker will take 10,000 years to make what Mukesh Ambani made in an hour during the pandemic.
–The survey for the report covered 295 economists from 79 countries out of which 87% expect an major increase in income inequality in their nation.
–India has the world’s fourth lowest health budget in terms of its share of government expenditure.
–If India’s top 11 billionaires are taxed at just 1% on the increase in their wealth during the pandemic, it will increase the allocation of Jan Aushadhi Scheme by 140 times,.
–Billionaires like Gautam Adani, Shiv Nadar, Cyrus Poonawalla, Uday Kotak, Azim Premji, Sunil Mittal, Radhakrishan Damani, Kumar Manglam Birla, and Laxmi Mittal increased their wealth since March 2020 meanwhile 170,000 people lost their jobs every hour in April 2020.
Recent Related News:
i.The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has published a flagship report titled “The State of Food and Agriculture(SOFA) 2020′ with theme “Overcoming Water Challenges in Agriculture”. The report states that around 1.2 billion people across the globe are under high levels of water stress, which means that one out of every 6 people in the world are facing a severe water stress or scarcity in agriculture with more than 15% of the rural population at risk.
ii.In accordance with the “World Malaria Report 2020” released by World Health Organisation (WHO), India recorded the largest reduction of malaria cases in South-East Asia from 20 million in 2000 to about 5.6 million in 2019.
About Oxfam India:
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)– Amitabh Behar
Headquarter– New Delhi
