One person's gain, is another's loss.

"For most Indians, the economic status of their parents still defines their future." "This is not just inequality of income, it is inequality of opportunity." In 2020-21, India's intergenerational income elasticity (IGE) was 0.56, which "means more than half of a parent's income advantage - or disadvantage - is passed on to their children. Fastest growing states like Karnataka (0.75), Telangana (0.73) and Tamil Nadu (0.69) have highest IGE, while Punjab (0.18), Assam (0.18) and Haryana (0.15) have lowest. IGE for illiterate households is highest (0.71), for graduate-level households (0.66), while it is lowest for for non-agriculture self-employed (0.34) and non-agriculture labor ((0.33), wrote Rajesh Shukla. In 2015, "Middle-class children benefit from a 'glass floor' protecting them from sliding down the social scale in Britain, a report has said." Wealthier families "used social networks to secure internships and employment," thus blocking poorer, more able children from a finite number of top jobs. BBC. With the world's largest population of 1,464 (worldometer), India has a relatively tiny number of top jobs, which means impossible competition. The most lucrative positions with the highest status are in politics and so political jobs are controlled by a few families in each state (wikipedia). Drug trafficking may be extremely lucrative, so that "In 2024, all law enforcement agencies seized narcotics worth approximately Rs 253.30 billion." pib.gov.in. But there is a risk of arrest and even detention (The Sunday Guardian) in some cases. Politics can earn equivalent amounts of wealth without the risk of arrest as shown by 251 (46%) out of 543 MPs in the Lok Sabha have declared criminal charges including murder, rape and kidnapping (ET). Once a parent is in, children follow. The Indian education system teaches children how to avoid poverty and not how to build wealth. Which means avoiding risk. BT. A report by the Institute of Competitiveness affiliated with Harvard Business School found that "despite increased access to higher education, an astonishing 88% of of the workforce is engaged in low-competency jobs." "Specifically, only 8.25% of graduates are in roles that align with their qualifications, indicating profound underutilization of talent across the country. The lack of opportunity in India is starkly highlighted by more than 100,000 applications for contractual sweepers' posts in Haryana, Including 39,990 graduates and 6,112 graduates. The job pays Rs 15,000 per month. TOI. Indian politicians prefer it this way. "India will soon become the third-largest economy in the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said (The Hndu)," who recently said that "950 million people were now covered under at least one social security scheme (TOI)." Win elections by boasting about being the third wealthiest country in the world while buying votes through handouts of taxpayer money. Who wants to take any risk in such an economy? No wonder, children of the rich "believe in passive income, active vacations and aggressive networking at yacht parties," wrote Harsh Goenka, Chairman of RPG Enterprises. Manual labor pays the same sort of wages, so IGE is low in such people. Accumulation of wealth reaches ever higher and so are few in number (Jagran Josh). Due to the extreme dearth of opportunities one person's gain is another's loss. IGE becomes very high. It's rooted in politics. Politicians ensure it never changes.