Top 10% in India hold 57% of national income: Govt in RS

The share of top 10 per cent people in India's National Income was equal to 57 per cent, Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. He was responding to questions raised by Trinamool Congress MP Shanta Chhetri.

New Delhi: The share of top 10 per cent people in India's National Income was equal to 57 per cent in 2021, Minister of State (Independent charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. He was responding to questions raised by Trinamool Congress MP Shanta Chhetri.

"As per World Inequality Report, 2022 published by World Inequality Lab in partnership with UNDP, the share of top 10% people in India’s National Income was equal to 57% in 2021," the MoS stated in a written reply.

"The UN General Assembly, in its 70th Session held on 25th September 2015, considered and adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which came into force with effect from 1st January 2016. SDGs are comprehensive list of global goals integrating the social, economic, and environmental sectors of development. The SDG 10, i.e. “Reduce inequality within and among countries”, aims at reducing inequality within and among countries," he added.

The MoS also said that the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the progress report 2021 (version 3.1) on SDGs National Indicator Framework (NIF) on 29th June 2021, which includes targets and national indicators under SDG 10.

"These indicators of SDG 10 interalia include wealth inequality related indicators which are based on the data of Household Consumer expenditure Survey (HCES) 2011-12," he added.

"The latest data on Consumer Expenditure Survey published by this Ministry is the report on Consumer Expenditure Survey (NSS 68th Round: July, 2011-June, 2012). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation which prevailed during 2020 & 2021, the period was considered to be an abnormal one and hence Consumer Expenditure Survey was not taken up," the Mos stated.