The top one per cent of India’s population owns more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021 and the bottom half just 13 per cent, said the World Inequality Report.

       "India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite," said the report by the World Inequality Lab, which does work through evidence-based research on inequality worldwide. The report is authored by Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab and coordinated by famed French economist Thomas Piketty among others.

       The report said the one per cent richest Indians held 22 per cent of the total national income in 2021. The top ten per cent owned 57 per cent of the income.

       The average national income of the Indian adult population is Euro 7,400 or Rs 204,200 on purchasing power parity basis, the report said about 2021. It clarified that the average national income of a country masks inequalities.

       Inequality widened when it comes to wealth. The bottom 50 per cent of Indian households own almost nothing. The middle class is also relatively poor, owning 29.5 per cent of the total wealth as compared with the top 10 per cent and one per cent who held 65 per cent and 33 per cent of the total wealth.

       Average wealth of India stood at Euro 4,200, which was six per cent of the total. The middle class owned an average wealth of only Euro 26 400 or Rs 723,930. The top ten per cent and one per cent owned Euro 231,300 or Rs 6,354,070 and over Euro 6.1 million or Rs 32,449,360.

       Since the mid-1980s, India's economic deregulation and liberalization policies have led to one of the most extreme increases in income and wealth inequality observed in the world.

       While the top one per cent has largely benefited from economic reforms, growth among low and the middle income groups has been relatively slow and poverty persists.

       State data questioned

       The report also has adverse comments on transparency of data released by the government. Over the past three years, the quality of inequality data released by the government has seriously deteriorated, making it particularly difficult to assess recent inequality changes," it said.

       Gender inequalities are also very high in the country. The female labor income share is equal to 18 per cent. This is significantly lower than the average in Asia, excluding China, at 21 per cent.

       "This value is one of the lowest in the world, slightly higher than the average share in West Asia at 15 per cent. The significant increase, eight percentage points, observed since 1990 has been insufficient to lift women’s labor income share to the regional average," the report said.

       India is a low carbon emitter: the average per capita consumption of greenhouse gas is equal to just over 2 CO2e. These levels are typically comparable with carbon footprints in sub-Saharan African countries.

       The bottom 50 per cent consumer one, the middle 40 per cent 2 and the top ten per cent nine tCO2e/capita.

       A person in the bottom 50 per cent of the population in India is responsible for, on average, five times fewer emissions than the average person in the bottom 50 per cent in the European Union and 10 times fewer than the average person in the bottom 50 per cent in the US.