Wealth inequality: Give all Indians a stake in capitalism—literally

livemint.com:

₹400 trillion in market capitalization, the sum of what all listed shares are worth. The impressive part is that participation has broadened vastly too. India boasts of over 150 million demat accounts, up from just 20 million or so a decade ago.

Most new investors joined the equity bandwagon after the pandemic’s outbreak in 2020. Investors taking the indirect route have also burgeoned. Monthly investment plans run by mutual funds now funnel as much as ₹19,000 crore into Indian equities each month.

In 2014, this figure was only around ₹2,000 crore. Assessments by fund houses, the market regulator and research firms suggest rising equity enthusiasm even in small towns. The ease of investing assured by a clutch of online apps is part of this story.

While no hard data is available to back this, it is a fair guess that middle-class India has finally taken to share ownership in a big way. Yet, it is also obvious that not everyone in the country is a market participant. Since there exists no reliable data on wealth across socio-economic levels, we have only indirect estimates of disparity.

Bleak data on inequality published by global agencies has been subject to criticism, but still, the gap in asset ownership between India’s well-off and those who lead hardscrabble lives must surely glare out for its enormity. This can be judged from the stock market’s capitalization; while foreigners own a chunk of shares, it mostly reflects the wealth of Indian equity owners, a class unlikely to exceed the ranks of our rich and middle-class. Most of our population is left out.