India could be shining. So, says a NCAER-CMCR report

A new study done by the NCAER-CMCR estimates that India has more high income households than the low income. The report titled ‘How India Earns, Spends and Saves’ mentioned that there are 46.7 million high income households while the low income households number 41 million.

There has been a sharp increase of number of high income households which grew from 13.8 million in 2001-02 to 46.7 million by 2010, the study says.

The report also noted that there is increase of middle income households in the country. According to the report “Those earning between Rs. 45,000 and Rs. 1.8 lakh per annum rose sharply from 109.2 million to 140.7 million in this decade.”

The report also said that the major benefits of India’s economic growth have gone to the “top quintile” (45.8 out of total 295 million households). The report also said that nearly a quarter of all rural Indians belong to the lowest income quintile.

The report also mentioned that in absolute terms, the middle income households grew from 135.9 million in 2007-08 to 140.7 million by 2009-10.

Some of the findings of the report:

•    Two-thirds of middle class in India lives in urban locality.
•    India has one of the highest savings rates in the world, with saving constituting an estimated 36 percent of the GDP.
•    The high income households grew from 16.8 percent to 20.5 percent in the last two years.
•    In the same time there was fall in the number of low-income households, from 21.1 percent to 17.9 percent.