India Added 40 Billionaires Last Year But Number of Poor Doubled: Oxfam

The nation added 40 billionaires to 142 last year, when a second wave of infections overwhelmed its health infrastructure and pushed crematoriums and burial grounds to breaking point.

India's richest have more than doubled their fortunes during the Covid-19 crisis that's ravaged the country and worsened poverty, and the government should revisit its policies to redistribute wealth, according to the global Oxfam Davos report of 2022.

The nation added 40 billionaires to 142 last year, when a second wave of infections overwhelmed its health infrastructure and pushed crematoriums and burial grounds to breaking point. They have almost $720 billion in combined fortune, more than the poorest 40% of the population, the group said in a report on rising inequality published Monday.

Wealth has surged globally during the pandemic as the value of everything from stock prices to crypto and commodities has jumped. The world's 500 richest people added more than $1 trillion to their net worths last year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. India, where urban unemployment climbed as high as 15% last May and food insecurity worsened, now counts more billionaires than France, Sweden and Switzerland combined, Oxfam said.

State policies including the abolition of a wealth tax in 2016, steep cuts in corporate levies and an increase in indirect taxation are among the factors that helped make the rich richer, while the national minimum wage has remained at 178 rupees ($2.4) a day since 2020, the India supplement of the global report said. Reduced federal funding to local administrations amid growing privatizations in the health and education sectors have further boosted inequalities. The nation is home to a quarter of the world's undernourished people, Oxfam said, citing the World Food Programme.