A matter of zeros.

"There has been a cumulative 74.2% decline in income disparity coverage for those earning up to Rs 500,000 annually between fiscal years 2013-14 and 2022-23 said a State Bank of India (SBI) report." "A comparison of disparity in income during AY15 (FY14)  and AY24 (FY23) shows that there is a clear rightward shift in the income distribution curve, signifying people in lower income brackets are increasing their income to converge towards their share in population, it said." ET. 2014 was when Mr Narendra Modi first came to power as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a majority in the Lok Sabha with 282 seats out of a total of 543 seats. wikipedia. And, SBI is a public sector bank under government control. wikipedia. Inequality in a nation is measured by the Gini coefficient. "The coefficient of the Gini index ranges from  0 (or 0%) to 1 (or 100%), with 0 representing perfect equality and 1 representing perfect inequality." Investopedia. "Nationally the value of this index was 0.30 in 1993-94, 0.35 in 2004-05, 0.36 in 2011-12. While hundreds of millions experienced the joy of exiting extreme poverty during those years, hardly any of them were even aware that inequality had risen at the same time," wrote Prof Arvind Panagariya. 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." Prof Panagariya carefully stops at 2012, well before this government grabbed power. In January 2024, "SBI Research has calculated that Gini coefficient has declined from 0.472 during Assessment Year 2024-15 to 0.402 for AY 2022-23. pib.gov.in. So, inequality has become much worse during this government's tenure. The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) report released recently shows that, "56% of Indians reported eating three meals a day while 43% just had two." HT. Starting 1 January 2024, the central government is to provide free food grains to 813.5 million for five years. pib.gov.in. With the total population of India at 1,455 million (worldometer), this means that 55.9% of our population need free food grains to survive. The Hurun India Rich List 2024 revealed that India has added one (dollar) billionaire every five days throughout 2023 and the total number of (dollar) billionaires has reached 334, six times more than 13 years ago. BS. One billion is 1 followed by nine zeros - 1,000,000,000. Byju's. In the Indian system 1 billion means 100 crores. Byju's. Only a minuscule number of villagers in India will be able to comprehend what one crore rupees means, let alone 100 crore dollars, but even a totally illiterate villager is acutely aware of the difference in living standards between her social level and the rich. Inequality is worse any way you slice it. The poor realise it. No matter what SBI calculates.