India's Richest 1% Earns 21.7% National Income: Highlights From World Inequality Report 2022

India's wealthiest 1% earned 21.7 per cent of the national income, while the bottom 50% of the population had a share of 13% of the national income, according to the latest study by World Inequality Report.

The report, authored by Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, termed India as a "poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite".

Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, in the foreword of the report, called India as "amongst the most unequal countries in the world", while linking such rising inequality to loosening of state control, and the growth of privatisation.

The top 10%'s share of national wealth is currently at an all time high of 64%, despite the pandemic. India's middle class was also found to be relatively poor, owning less than 30% of the national wealth

The average wealth of an Indian household was reported to be at ₹9,83,010. Compared to this, the report said that the bottom 50 per cent owned "almost nothing", with an average wealth of ₹66,280.