More than Gini.

In India, the Gini coefficient was 0.30 in 1993-94, 0.35 in 2004-05, 0.36 in 2009-10 and 0.36 in 2011-12, wrote Prof Arvind Panagariya. Gini coefficient is a measure of income, where 0 represents perfect equality of income, while 1 represents all income concentrated in the hands of one individual. wikipedia. So, while consumption surveys show that millions of Indians have been lifted out of poverty, the rising Gini index shows increasing inequality. However, a villager in India "hardly cares if Mukesh Ambani adds another five billion to his wealth in a given year. But if her neighbor's wealth rises sharply while she struggles, she has sleepless nights." Mukesh Ambani's net worth is estimated at $115.2 billion (Forbes), which converts to Rs 9.56 trillion. This is so colossal that even an educated middle-class Indian will be unable to wrap her mind around its meaning. After the Reserve Bank (RBI) decided to withdraw Rs 2000 notes from circulation  (ET), the Indian villager will be unable to calculate how many Rs 500 notes will make Rs 1 million. That is because only 43% of 14-18 year old children can do a simple division problem, according to the Annual Status of Education Survey (ASER) 2023. The Wire. For an economy which boasts of being the fifth largest in the world with a GDP of $4,112 billion (Forbses) reduction of abject poverty is not enough. "Although the youth population, at 27% of the total population in 2021, is expected to decline to 23% by 2036, around 7-8 million youths are added to the labor force each year." "Overall, the youth unemployment rate declined after 2017-18 dropping to 12.4% in 2021-22 and further to 10% in 2022-23." But, "the percentage of unemployed youth with secondary and above education among the total unemployed has increased from 54.2% in 1999-00 to 65.7% in 2021-22," wrote Alakh N Sharma and Ravi Srivastava. While, Mukesh Ambani adding a few more billions to his wealth, or that son Anant has a collection of luxury watches worth Rs 2 billion (GQ), may be irrelevant to the educated youth, they have a right to feel a trifle aggrieved that Ambani's children have joined the board of directors of the $100 billion Reliance Industries. wikipedia. "Twins Isha and Akash, 32, got over 98% of votes for being appointed on the board of Reliance while Anant, 28, got 92.75% votes, the filing showed." NDTV. Because papa Mukesh Ambani owns 50.39% of the company. India's billionaires - "Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Sajjan Jindal - have entered the leagues of the world's richest people." "None of this trickled down to workers. The share of manufacturing, which could have created jobs for the bulging youth population, has shrunk to 13% of the overall output, compared to 28% in China," wrote Andy Mukherjee. Perhaps, the Gini is not enough. Perhaps, we need indices for opportunity, for cronyism and for dignity. Prof Panagariya should work on those.