Overview

• The World Bank’s April report shows India’s consumption-based Gini fell to 25.5 in 2022–23, placing it fourth most equal country worldwide.
• Economists including Ram Kumar and N C Saxena contend that consumption surveys underrepresent wealthy households and that asset-inclusive Gini ratios could be as high as 80.
• The NSO acknowledged an 11% non-response rate among high-income urban households in the 2022–23 consumption survey, potentially understating actual inequality.
• The World Bank’s simultaneous citation of a 25.5 consumption Gini and a 62 income Gini from the World Inequality Database creates a contradictory picture that experts say undermines data credibility.
• Analysts and opposition figures are pressing the government to launch India’s first official household income distribution survey and integrate income-and-asset-based metrics into inequality assessments.