RUSTED FREEDOM 

Kobad Ghandy 

The top 10% of the India's population holds 77% of the total national wealth. 73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1%, while 67 crore Indians who comprise the poorest half of the population saw only a 1% increase in their wealth. On the other hand, in 2022 India ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger index, a sharp decline from earlier. India's poverty rate is 84% (those living under $ 5 per day), compared to Egypt's 69% and even Indonesia's 62% (2019 figures) and Sri Lanka's 49%. The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India at 135 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index in the report's 2022 edition.

 But the big corporates continue their rise. Adani with a wealth of $ 150 billion (2021) was by far the richest followed by Ambani at $ 100 billion. And these are only the official figures; black income and wealth would at least double these figures

 If a popular government were to seize the ill-gotten wealth of just the top 200 companies, kick the foreign financiers/businesses out of the country (stop the drain of about 20% of our GDP each year) and re-invest this huge amount in agriculture, health care, afforestation, education and boosting the small scale industries (particularly the 6 crore micro industries) then India could have, long back, turned into a self-reliant country with a strong economic base.