India's per capita income doubles under Modi government: Here's what data show

In a sign that India's economy is doing well, the National Statistical Office (NSO) has revealed that the per capita income has almost doubled to Rs 1.72 lakh in the last 9 years under the Modi government. The per capita income was Rs 86,647 in 2014-15 -- the year BJP stormed to power with a clear majority.

The current per capita income represents a rise of 15.8 per cent over the previous year. It was estimated at Rs 1,27,065 and Rs 1,48,524 for 2020-21 and 2021-22, respectively. This means that there has been a consistent rise in per capita income.

According to economists, maintaining per capita income between 5 per cent and 6 per cent annually, together with suitable redistributive measures, will promote the nation's future growth. They did, however, also make note of the potential difficulty presented by the uneven income distribution.

Former director of the premier economic research institute NIPFP Pinaki Chakraborty said that the Global Development Indicator database shows that India's real per-capita income increased on average at a rate of 5.6 per cent each year from 2014 to 2019.

Stating that the growth is substantial, he said, "Results in terms of health, education, and economic and social mobility have all improved. Covid negatively affected us. Since Covid, the economy has significantly recovered, though."

Chakraborty further said that maintaining per capita income growth at 5-6% per year along with suitable redistributive measures will help in maintaining this momentum.

Economist Jayati Ghosh, however, said that looking at GDP in current prices, the growth in per capita income in nominal terms is significantly smaller when inflation is taken into account.

“The top 10 per cent of the population has reaped the most of the benefits. Yet in contrast, she claims that this dispersion is crucial since median incomes are declining and may even be falling in real terms,” Ghosh said.

India's gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 4.4 per cent in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, which was less than the 6.3 per cent growth experienced in the second quarter of 2022–23.