Asked last year to comment on the state of India's inequality, the celebrated French economist Thomas Piketty replied: "We don't really know". But now we do. According to a paper published last week by Mr Piketty and his colleague, Lucas Chancel, income inequality in India is at its most extreme since 1922, when India was a British colony. The liberalisation of India's economy, which began in the 1980s and intensified in the 1990s, lifted millions of people out of extreme poverty. India is now home to one of the largest middle classes. But the chief beneficiaries of the state's gradual self-evacuation from the "commanding heights" of the economy have been the top one per cent of Indians, who today appropriate a larger share of the country's income than at any point in the last century.
Under the British Raj, says the report by Messrs Piketty and Chancel, the "top 1 per cent of earners captured less than 21 per cent of total income". This figure, having dropped to six per cent in the early 1980s, now stands at 22 per cent. Advocates of economic growth have long argued that the pursuit of equality hampers the fight against poverty. Prosperity, they said, would eventually percolate to the bottom rungs of society. This clearly hasn't happened. In fact, according to Messrs Piketty and Chancel, the Indian middle class was better off between 1951 and 1980 – the high noon of socialism. This period, much decried now, is when India built its industrial capacity and laid down safety nets for the poorest.
The better future promised by champions of economic reforms may yet come about, but what of the millions of Indians who have adversely been affected by this transition? Indian prime minister Narendra Modi promised to reach out to them. Yet his policy of "demonetisation", which banned 86 per cent of all currency in circulation, only compounded the misery of India's poorest. The rich are getting richer, the middle class is getting poorer, and there is no upward mobility for the poor. If Mr Modi doesn't urgently address this problem, "shining India" will come to be seen as a cruel hoax.
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
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Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
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Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
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How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
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