Recently, the Indian government has extensively used the World Bank’s assessment in its publicity releases, claiming that its poverty alleviation program has been very successful. The World Bank has acknowledged that, thanks to government efforts over the past decade and a half, an additional half of India’s population has risen above the poverty line, and the number of extremely poor in India has declined from 27.1 percent to only 2.6 percent. Surveyors have now presented some positive evidence that corroborates the World Bank’s statement. It has been reported that the number of high-income taxpayers in the country is rapidly increasing. A report by the online tax filing platform, ClearTax, reveals that nearly one in three self-filers has an annual income of over ₹20 lakh. The share of such individuals has increased to 30.5 percent in 2026-27. Three years ago, it was 22.5 percent. Those earning more than ₹5 million annually has also increased from 4.5 percent to 8 percent. Furthermore, Indians achieve prosperity between the ages of 40 and 50, with 44 percent of taxpayers in this age group earning more than ₹2 million annually. The figures for women are also not far behind. The report shows that while the proportion of men earning such incomes was 42 percent, the proportion for women was 27 percent. These figures are certainly surprising, because when we look at our surroundings, we see primarily the impoverished lower middle class standing in queues. These figures aren’t wrong, but the question is: what percentage of our total population files income tax returns? The answer is only around 10 percent of the total population. This means that the above growth is only visible among this 10 percent of the population, while the poor remain in the same place. When we examined India’s white-collar professional employment data in October, it had increased by 14 percent. Demand for production and manufacturing had increased by 39 percent. While a proportional increase in white-collar jobs is visible, the labor force remains unreported. What’s needed is that, alongside these promising figures, better earning opportunities should be created for laborers, farmers, and street vendors, so that they too can benefit from the country’s development journey.
Some New Data on India’s Prosperity Growth
