Do you accept that during COVID-19, when poverty in India was high, India gave 40 billionaires to the world? Regardless of whether you thought it was bogus, truth was uncovered in the Oxfam Davos report.
All of you know how our nation has been impacted since COVID-19. I would even prefer not to rehash what is known. However, what I will say just flabbergasts you.
Despite the country's difficult conditions, such as the COVID-19, many individuals have mined gold, according to the Global Oxfam Davos Report of 2022. According to the research, during the COVID-19 crisis, India's wealthy had increased their fortune. Oxfam suggested that the government should correct its policies against wealth which is concentrated within a small group of individuals in its ongoing report.
Oxfam and India
Oxfam, a British Organization, was founded in 1942 with the goal of eradicating worldwide poverty. It has 21 charitable trusts under its wings. Oxfam began its operations in India in 1951, combating the dreadful famine in Bihar. Bihar was one of India's poorest and most populated states at the time. The group, which compares poverty throughout the world, publishes annual studies that index the world.
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India added roughly 40 billionaires last year in 2021, bringing the total number of billionaires in the country to 182. In the second COVID-19 wave, they are said to have accumulated $ 720 billion. These figures appear startling, especially in a situation where entire country was in a panic and there was a dearth of hospital beds and services. This is even more than the wealth of the poorest forty percent of the country's population. The grim truth of India's inequity was only revealed after the report was published.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the cost of everything surged, from stocks to cryptocurrency, food to gas and fuels. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the world's 500 wealthiest people took advantage of the chance to increase their net worth to over $1 trillion last year. India's urban unemployment rate increased by 15% in May. People were hungry due to food shortages. During this time, however, India has produced more billionaires than France, Sweden, and Switzerland combined.
Many state policies, such as the cancellation of the wealth tax in 2016, corporate tax cuts, and indirect tax increases, aided in the enrichment of the wealthy while impoverishing the poor. India's 2020 Global Report contains statistics about this. Inequalities in India have risen further as a result of greater privatization in the health and education sectors, as well as inadequate funding for local government authorities. This type of growth is not safe in India, which accounts for approximately a quarter of the world's undernourished population, Oxfam said in reference to the World Food Program.
"Unfortunately, the Indian government's tax policy has favored the wealthy while depriving India's states of crucial financial resources." Oxfam said.
In its study, Oxfam made a proposal to the government. An extra 1% tax must be levied on the top ten percent of India's wealthiest citizens. That money should be invested on health and education. The wealth of India's top ten billionaires is such that they can easily support these activities over the next 25 years.
84 percent of families suffered a decrease in income at the start of the pandemic. In addition, India, like the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, has witnessed a rise in poverty. The number of poor people in the South Asian country is expected to double to 134 million by 2020. According to Oxfam, this is higher than Pew's research estimate. Oxfam says that more daily wage workers, self-employed people, and the unemployed are committing suicide, based on official criminal statistics.
You may have heard about the leak of the Pandora Papers. More than 380 Indians have undeclared overseas and domestic assets worth over Rs 200 billion, according to the 11.9 million records of 29,000 offshore companies and private trusts formed abroad for tax evasion.
Gautam Adani made the most money last year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And his gain in this asset was the fifth-largest in the globe last year. He now has a wealth of about $ 90 billion after adding $ 42.7 billion to it last year. Mukesh Ambani's net value increased to $ 13.3 billion in 2021, putting him at $ 97 billion now.
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