State of Inequality in India

A recent report titled The State of Inequality in India by the Institute for Competitiveness, brought out in response to the request of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), has made a few surprising recommendations. They include raising minimum income and providing universal basic income to reduce the growing income gap and the introduction of an urban version of the demand-based Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to rehabilitate surplus labour.

The report also recommends increasing the share of expenditure allocated to the social sector and services to protect the most vulnerable sections from sudden shocks. Facilitating upward mobility of the poor by equitable access to education and creation of more jobs, conducting regular stocktaking of the extent of vulnerability of house­holds, and ensuring their overall well-being are some of the other suggestions. Most of these recommendations have been mooted earlier by academics and other experts and widely debated outside the government. But maybe this is the first time that the EAC-PM, which is expected to advise the Prime Minister on economy-related issues, is associating itself with such different and sweeping views.