This might come as a surprise, but according to New World Wealth, India is the seventh wealthiest nation in the world. It means, a lot has happened while we were not looking. The traditional way of measuring the wealth of a nation is by using the GDP as a base. New World Wealth uses the net assets per person to calculate the total wealth of the nation. India has a total wealth of $5,200 billion which is higher than that of Canada and Australia.
However, that is where the dream ends. It’s the huge population that eats into the gains and the result is that a large number of people still live below the poverty line. Australia for instance has a total wealth of $ 4,500 billion but it is divided among 22 million people. And therein lies the difference. So, is it something to feel proud about? It is difficult to say because the ranking does not tell the whole story. India’s real story is that it has huge disparities in wealth distribution even though the number of millionaires has grown in the last decade or so. The only time we can rest our laurels is when there is no one below the poverty line.
