Equal consumption.

The World Inequality Database has pegged India's income-based Gini coefficient at 62 in 2023, but India's large informal workforce means income is volatile, whereas consumption is smoother over time, wrote Soumya Kanti Ghosh & Falguni Sinha. Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality, where 0 reflects perfect equality and 100 means all wealth in the hands of one individual. wikipedia. India's consumption-based Gini is at a low 25.5. "In India, where large-scale social welfare programs - subsidised grains, LPG, housing, rural employment guarantee, health insurance and direct benefit transfers - have significantly boosted the living standards of the poor, consumption will inevitably be higher and more equally distributed than income." Indeed. "The population covered by social protection systems has increased from 22% in 2016 to 64.5% in 2025," so that, "the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions has declined sharply from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-21." TOI. In India, "Going by facts, the 'middle class' could be the 2.2% of the electorate that pays (income) tax, or the 8% who own cars." But, "Studies conducted by Lok Foundation with the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), University of Pennsylvania came up with the surprising finding that about 49% of respondents self-identified as being middle-class," wrote Prof Dipankar Gupta. This despite the fact that 29% of graduates are unemployed, "nearly nine times higher than 3.4% for the illiterate". Clearly, people are not defining themselves as middle class based on income, but on consumption. "India's middle class is not being crushed primarily by inflation or taxes, but by something far more insidious." "Household debt in India has now climbed to 42% of GDP. A striking 32.3% of this is made up of unsecured debt - credit cards, personal loans and Buy Now, Pay Later service." BT. To provide social security to 64.5% of a total population of 1,464 million (146.4 crore) (worldometer), the government would need to raise much higher revenue. Former CFO and board member at Infosys TV Mohandas Pai accused "central as well as state governments for 'oppressing' taxpayers and hounding them with 'tax terrorism'. Tax terrorism refers to a situation when the process of tax collections becomes so complex and harsh that ordinary citizens get unnecessarily harassed." FE. Terrorism has to be practiced surreptitiously. So, "Indian farmers are effectively taxed, not subsidized, agriculture economist Dr Ashok Gulati has said, citing international producer support benchmarks." BT. "As GST notices continue to land at the doorsteps of small traders across Karnataka, vendors in cities like Mysuru and Bengaluru are increasingly refusing UPI (United Payments Interface) in favor of cash - raising concerns over the future of India's digital ecosystem." TOI. Consumption without income is abnormal. An abnormal process can only have an abnormal outcome. Debt and terrorism.