The report highlights that the wealth of billionaires has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, while people living in poverty all over the world continue to face multiple crises.
Key findings of Report
- Rise in Billionaires: In 2024, billionaires' wealth increased by a rate three times faster than 2023.
- Over 3.5 billion people continue to live on less than $6.85 per day, whereas the richest 1% now possesses more wealth than 95% of the global population.
- Colonial Inheritance: Unearned nature of much of extreme wealth of ultra-rich is arguably a result of colonialism.
- Between 1765 and 1900, UK drained $64.82 trillion from India, with $33.8 trillion going to the top 10%.
- Colonialism is both a historical (Historical colonialism) and a modern-day phenomenon (Neo-Colonialism).
- Impact of historical colonialism on present-day inequality:
- Exploitation and Profound economic Inequality, Border Conflicts due to arbitrary colonial partitions etc.
- Social Divisions (E.g. Racism), concentration of landholdings in the Global South, Poor health Indicators in global south, global disparities in research and funding etc.
- Colonial Legacy in Contemporary Times(Neo-Colonialism):
- Digital colonialism (Domination of digital resources by powerful corporations from Global North).
- Exploitative corporate structures (MNC exploiting poor workers in Global South to drive profits).
- Unequal power in institutions that govern our world (Global governance institutions are informally dominated by Global North).
Wealth Drain from India During Colonial Period
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