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The Great Indian Inequality Debate: Is India's income inequality declining?

With the latest HCES showing a fall in Gini coefficient between FY12 and FY23, has India been able to reduce the income inequality?

The latest HCES shows consumption inequality has declined in India. Does that mean income inequality has declined as well? slums poverty

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The HCES also shows that the top 10 per cent of rural and urban households account for 22.7 per cent and 25.7 per cent of overall consumption expenditure in the country, down from 24.6 per cent and 29.7 per cent, respectively

Shiva Rajora New Delhi

7 min read Last Updated : Jun 20 2024 | 10:45 PM IST

The household consumption expenditure survey (HCES), released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) after a gap of 11 years, reveals that the value of Gini Coefficient for consumption expenditure in the country declined from 0.283 in 2011-12 to 0.266 in 2022-23 for rural areas, and from 0.363 to 0.314 for urban areas.

Developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini, the coefficient has been a measure of income inequality in an economy for more than a century. It measures inequality on a scale of 0 to 1, with higher values indicating higher inequality. This can sometimes be shown as a percentage from 0

Topics : Inequality Income inequality in India GDP India's per capital income

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