Piketty is right, inequality has risen

The top echelons reward themselves with higher pay packages and stocks in good times, and do not get untowardly affected in bad times, as the Lehman episode showed.

Capitalism is known to operate on the principles of economic Darwinism and the assumption is that markets are the sole determinant of success. The market is accessible to all and hence it is fair play. But markets, while being open to all, have barriers to entry, which can be education, income thresholds, cartelisation, revolving doors among the elites, and so on. Hence, while free markets capitalism is supposed to be fair, it does not give the expected results and there tends to be concentration at the top.

This is what has been seen across the world and within India, too. Liberalisation, which came with reforms since 1991-92, ushered in a large influx of goods and services, never before witnessed. Sectors were opened up and the red tape was cut. The shibboleths of MRTP and FERA were dismantled, and the focus was on…

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