Rising inequality hurts: When growth occurs, the poorest benefit the least

Some of the principal findings are: one, the share of national income accruing to the top 1 per cent income earners is now at its highest level since the launch of the Indian Income Tax Act in 1922

Plutarch was right when he said that an imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. Much has been written to demonstrate that income inequality hurts the poor. However, following Thomas Piketty’s magnum opus, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the focus has shifted to rapid growth of income shares of the top 1 per cent concurrently with growth in the developed countries. In a more recent contribution, Lucas Chancel and Piketty (2017) offer a rich and unique description of evolution of income inequality in India in terms of income shares and incomes in