‘No change in income inequality in Covid’ – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Income inequality in the country stayed at the same level during the pandemic and India has done quite well in terms of navigating income shocks across deciles of population, a State Bank of India (SBI) report has shown.
“Our results substantiate that in the Indian context, it is thus an incorrect conjecture to assume that inequality has worsened during the pandemic. Our estimated Gini coefficient across states show income inequality during pandemic almost stayed at the same level,” said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group economic adviser at SBI.
“With a progressive growth in output across states as proxied by GSDP (gross state domestic product), it is clear that the fruits of such a growth have clearly reverberated and dove-tailed into an inclusive growth if estimates from Gini coefficient of state-wise per capita income are any indication that has improved since FY17,” said Ghosh.
Using GSDP data from FY12 to FY21, the Gini coefficient was constructed in order to evaluate the situation of income inequality in India. The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to repre- sent the income or the wealth inequality within a nation or states or a social group. Increase in coefficient indicates increase in inequality and vice-versa, according to the report.
“Our results indicate that in India on a broader level Gini coefficient remains constant (in the range of 0. 57 to 0. 58) throughout the period (FY12 to FY21),” according to the report.