Rahul Gandhi jumps on WEF report, accuses PM Modi of 'extracting wealth from poor'

Congress' Rahul Gandhi took on Prime Minister Modi over a report that suggested the total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires was more than the Union Budget of 2019. The former Congress chief alleged that the Prime Minister extracts wealth from India's poor and gives it to his "crony capitalist friends" and the big power brokers that he relies on. He said 1% of India's super-rich have four times more wealth than one billion of the country's poor.

In a tweet, Rahul Gandhi said, "Modi extracts wealth from poor and gives it to his crony capitalist friends and the big power brokers he's dependent on. 1% of India's super-rich, now own 4 times more wealth than 1 Billion of India's poor," India has been ranked very low at 76th place out of 82 countries on a new Social Mobility Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, while Denmark has topped the charts.

READ| Soon they'll ask 'why no-one's asking about Pak's economy?': Sitaram Yechury slams BJP

World Economic Forum Report 

The report released on Monday ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting, stated that the total wealth of 63 Indian billionaires was higher than the total Union Budget for this fiscal at Rs 24.42 lakh crore. The report examined that the top 1% of Indians hold more than four times the amount of wealth held by 953 million people or the bottom 70% of the country's population. 

The report said that it will take a female domestic worker 22,277 years to earn a top CEO of a tech company makes in one year. It said women and girls put in 3.26 billion hours of unpaid care work each and every day -- a contribution to the Indian economy of at least Rs 19 lakh crore a year which is 20 times the entire education budget of India in 2019 (Rs 93,000 crore), the report said

Measuring countries across five key dimensions distributed over 10 pillars - health; education (access, quality, and equity); technology; work (opportunities, wages, conditions); and protections and institutions (social protection and inclusive institutions) - shows that fair wages, social protection, and lifelong learning are the biggest drags on social mobility globally. Reportedly, as of November 2016, India is the second most unequal country in the world, following Russia.  India ranks 76th out of 82 economies. It ranks 41st in lifelong learning and 53rd in working conditions.

READ| Congress responds to Ramachandra Guha's criticism of Rahul Gandhi, Gehlot chides historian

READ| PM Modi reveals 'Our dreams are bigger than $5 Tn economy', hours after meeting India Inc.