The stigma of inequality.

"The ongoing key reforms such as sops for manufacturing, easier labor laws, wooing FDI inflows and privatisation will help improve productivity and support long term-growth at 7.5-8 percent levels, which if played out well, can help India contribute 15 percent of global GDP growth by FY2026, says a report." It is not clear whether the report is talking about nominal or real GDP growth and "if played out well" depends on politics and on winning elections. Kawoosa, Jha and Sachdev put some numbers on what to expect 10 years from now. "According to the World Bank's projection, India will overtake China to become the most populous country in 2023, when its population  reaches1.42 billion." This is the last decade when "India's working-age group population is projected to increase from 55.8% this year to 58.8% by 2031", which is supposed to provide a 'demographic dividend', with increased productivity, increase in consumption and faster growth in GDP. Climate change could have a deleterious effect and delimitation of the Indian parliament could set off tensions between states with low and high fertility rates. While some are predicting growth rates of 7.5-8% others predict rate of growth at 4.5%, wrote Kawoosa et al. "Higher job losses among those below the age of 40 years has resulted in an ageing workforce, which is not favorable for a strong recovery of the Indian economy, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)." A weak growth means increasing poverty and inequality. "India's billionaires reported a rise in their combined net worth by more than a third during the first four months of the coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown i.e. between April and July, defying the impact of the global economic fallout of the pandemic." Uma Shashikant details how her friend married into a nouveau riche family who waste vast quantities of food and buy gadgets that they do not use because they "lack respect for money". "The family began as simple salary earners. But the son associated himself with the powerful and politically well connected, and was soon dabbling in real estate, media, films, television, and such multiple enterprises that seem to be bringing more money than any of them know how to use, manage or protect." Previous Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian may bemoan "stigmatised capitalism" characterised by a complete mistrust of the private sector but you cannot blame people if politicians depend on crony capitalism to finance elections. "India's per capita income in 2019-20 was Rs 1,26,968, according to provisional estimates published on January 7," wrote Abhishek Jha. In 2017-18, annual per capita income in India was Rs 29,896 according to the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS), Rs 44,901 according to the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) and Rs 115,293 according to the National Accounts Statistics. These numbers show that the vast majority of Indians earn very little and after the lockdown "the bottom 10% of India's households lost 30 percentage points more of their income than the top 10%. Even individuals with secure, salaried jobs -- the cream of India's workforce -- saw their income decline by about 12% in 2020", wrote Lahoti, Jha and Basole. The real stigma is that of inequality. It is real.