Overview

• Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the government’s economic approach is producing extreme concentration of wealth that he called a “direct attack on the very soul of democracy.”
• The M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025 counts 1,687 individuals with at least Rs 1,000 crore, with cumulative wealth pegged at about Rs 167 lakh crore, or nearly half of India’s GDP.
• The list added 284 people year-on-year, including 148 first-time entrants, underscoring the rapid expansion of very large fortunes.
• Hurun reports India has created a billionaire roughly every week for two years, with those on the list adding about Rs 1,991 crore in wealth each day.
• Ramesh linked the concentration to stress on MSMEs, high inflation, shrinking earning opportunities, and wage and payment delays under MGNREGA, and warned of broader risks to democratic institutions.