Fortunes of five richest men have more than doubled since 2020 and the world could have its first-ever trillionaire in just a decade while it would take more than two centuries to end poverty, rights group Oxfam said on Monday.
The Union home ministry on Thursday recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the affairs of the Indian arm of the global NGO Oxfam for alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, sources said.
The FIR against the Indian arm of the global NGO Oxfam was registered based on a complaint from the ministry of home affairs.
The United Kingdom extracted USD 64.82 trillion from India over a century of colonialism between 1765 and 1900 and USD 33.8 trillion of this went to the richest 10 per cent -- enough money to carpet London in notes of 50 British pound almost four times over.
The government has cancelled the FCRA registration of nearly 1,900 NGOs for violating various provisions of the law in the last five years. There were 22,762 FCRA-registered organisations till December-end 2021.
The richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country's total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth, a new study showed on Monday.
The average salary hike of top-paid chief executive officers (CEOs) in four countries, India, the USA, the UK and South Africa, was 9 per cent, but the workers in these countries saw their salary dip by 3.19 per cent, an analysis by Oxfam on International Workers' Day on May 1 showed. Based on data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and government agencies, the analysis also showed that workers in these countries worked "for free" for six days last year because their wages lagged behind inflation. One billion workers in 50 countries took an average pay cut of $685 in 2022, a collective loss of $746 billion in real wages, compared to if wages had kept up with inflation, it said.
The income tax department on Wednesday conducted a survey operation against Delhi-based think-tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and global NGO Oxfam India apart from a media foundation as part of a probe related to alleged FCRA contravention in funds received by them, official sources said.
From bhikshus of Ashokan 3rd century BC and medieval Sufis to Oxfam, Omidyar and Soros now, non-State actors have any real power only when they work in conjunction with a real State, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Another report by Oxfam had found that eight billionaires, including Bill Gates, from around the globe have as much money as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world's population.
The G20 must also take overdue sanction on transparency, by delivering an exhaustive and objective list on non- cooperative jurisdictions, backed up with the promised sanctions.
India's 100 top billionaires have seen their fortunes increase by Rs 12,97,822 crore since March last year when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country and this amount is enough to give 13.8 crore poorest Indians a cheque for Rs 94,045 each.
A report by international agency Oxfam on Monday flayed rich countries for using World Trade Organisation
In 2010, the richest 80 people in the world had a net wealth of $ 1.3 trillion.
The richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country's total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth, a new study showed on Monday. Releasing the India supplement of its annual inequality report on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, rights group Oxfam International said that taxing India's ten-richest at 5 per cent can fetch entire money to bring children back to school. "A one-off tax on unrealized gains from 2017-2021 on just one billionaire, Gautam Adani, could have raised Rs 1.79 lakh crore, enough to employ more than five million Indian primary school teachers for a year," it added.
The CBI has registered a case of alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act against human rights activist Harsh Mander and his NGO, and searched his premises on Friday, officials said.
Releasing a report titled 'Profiting from Pain' in Davos, the rights group further said as the cost of essential goods rises faster than it has in decades, billionaires in the food and energy sectors are increasing their fortunes by $1 billion every two days.
'The sense of Constitutional propriety and political morality seems to be vanishing fast.' 'There are many things in today's politics of governance which Manmohan Singh would have never dreamt of saying or doing.'
The ministry of home affairs has suspended the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence of prominent public think-tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR) over violation of laws, officials said on Thursday.
Indian billionaires saw their combined fortunes more than double during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their count shot up by 39 per cent to 142, while the wealth of the ten richest is enough to fund school and higher education of children in the country for 25 years, a new study showed on Monday. In its annual inequality survey released on the first day of the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam India further said that an additional one per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent can provide the country with nearly 17.7 lakh extra oxygen cylinders, while a similar wealth tax on the 98 richest billionaire families would finance Ayushman Bharat, the world's largest health insurance scheme, for more than seven years. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a huge rush for oxygen cylinders and insurance claims during the second wave last year.
The 15-nation Council met on Friday to vote on the resolution tabled by the United Arab Emirates and backed by over 90 member states. The resolution got the backing of 13 Council members who voted in its favour while the United Kingdom abstained.
'From March 2020 to November 2021, the combined wealth of the billionaires of this country has doubled.'
Opposition leaders slammed the Centre on Wednesday for its 'limited' focus on important sectors like health and education in the Budget for 2023-24 fiscal.
Billionaire Bill Gates, in a 2019 interview, supported bringing back a regulation in the US to require the super-rich to pay a 55 per cent tax when they inherit their family fortune. Proponents of an inheritance or estate tax say it reduces inequality and creates a meritocratic society by chipping away at the enormous advantages the children of the wealthiest families enjoy by an accident of birth. Many large economies levy such a tax on their richest citizens; India does not.
The full-court press on India over Ukraine, the BBC 'documentary', the Oxfam report, the Hindenburg attack on Adani and obliquely on the Indian economy, and any number of other acts are signs that India is a target, warns Rajeev Srinivasan.
Hitting back at former prime minister Manmohan Singh for his criticism of the Modi government's handling of the economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said he is more remembered for having brought India to "fragile five" and rampant inflation during his term.
'The top 11 billionaires in India added so much to their wealth during the pandemic that it would have sustained MNREGA for 10 years or the ministry of health for 10 years.'
We know the Pradhan Mantri is the nation's premier fashionista, so when he visited the land of Rob Roy, Mary Queen of Scots and J K Rowling, would he try out a kilt?
'Now they're talking about changing the Constitution; they feel they have no reason now to hide their intentions.'
It will take a female domestic worker 22,277 years to earn a top CEO of a tech company makes in one year.
"Tendulkar's attorney said the cricket player's investment is legitimate and has been declared to tax authorities. Shakira's attorney said the singer declared her companies, which the attorney said do not provide tax advantages. Schiffer's representatives said the supermodel correctly pays her taxes in the UK, where she lives," it notes.
Rahul Ram on the anthem he created for Oxfam's Inequality Virus project.
The wealth of India's richest 1 per cent increased by over Rs 20.9 lakh crore during 2017.
To help the country emerge as a true welfare State, political parties must put the country's interests first before strategising to win elections and short-term goals, argues Ramesh Menon.
These entities did not apply for renewal of their FCRA licence. In addition, the Union home ministry also rejected renewal applications of 179 organisations, officials said.
Wealth of the richest 62 people has risen 44% in the five years since 2010, while that of the bottom half fell by 41%
India has been asked to support the proposed 'Global Arms Trade Treaty' set to be discussed at the United Nations General Assembly next month by a confederation of NGOs from across the world Wednesday.
'Inequality has been growing in the world. The virus has only amplified it.'
'The roadmap ahead seems very difficult especially in the rural areas where there is very poor infrastructure, vaccine reach and hesitancy.' 'These are a deadly cocktail for the next wave.'
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