Outgoing US President Joe Biden in his farewell address spoke of “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power was left unchecked,” underlining threats to the institutions that govern American society by placement of plutocrats in bodies deciding public policy and the monopolistic control over personal data and misinformation campaigns by some wealthy individuals ~ which was shaping political discourse and public perception. Mincing no words, Mr Biden warned the American public against oligarchs who posed a threat to American democracy, basic rights and freedoms and equality of opportunity.

What Mr Biden said is deeply relevant for most countries, because concentration of wealth is taking place at an unprecedented rate the world over, including India. According to UBS Billionaire Ambitions Report, India which is ranked at the 140th position in terms of per capita GDP, ranked third globally in billionaire count in 2024, with 185 billionaires, behind only the US and China. We added 32 billionaires in the past year, reflecting a 21 per cent increase in number of billionaires ~ and a remarkable 123 per cent growth since 2015.

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The combined wealth of Indian billionaires increased by 42.1 per cent over the year to reach US $905 billion. These figures appear incongruous vis-à-vis the average monthly consumption expenditure in rural (Rs.4,122) and urban areas (Rs.6,996) in India (Source: Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023- 24). More significantly, the dominance of the wealthy is increasing in the corridors of power; in the showdown between the research firm Hindenburg and Adani Group, the Adanis unabashedly equated themselves with India with no demur from the Government.

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The reasons for the unequal growth in India are rooted in history; the first Industrial Revolution that swept Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century reached India only in the twentieth century, but the fourth Industrial Revolution soon overtook it ~ in the early part of twenty-first century. Thus, industrial growth of several centuries was telescoped in a span of seventy-five years; right after new industries based on new machines, powered by new energy sources, and organised in new business structures took root, digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) drove another quantum transformation. This phenomenal growth in the Indian........

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