good, and things will get better. just trust me, support me and make sure that the republicans, what with me, he's got to do that, particularly if he wants to be re elected. because this, kimberly says that the moment his approval rating is down in the forty's and have any chance of winning the presidency for a 2nd type that has to be well in the fifty's. and he's got a lot of what to do can convince the america. but the work he's doing is working for them. alan, thank you very much. indeed. alan fisher in washington dc. and we return now to our top story mondays. devastating earthquakes across to kia and syria. more than 11300 people now confirmed dead. we're going to leave you with so much am images as well as voices of despair and hope. ah, a

study about sort of a like a school with

y'all, y'all. i own a mm hm. ah. because in on them all, conclusively, cousin, suppose you need, i, i go to above one, isn't it yet?

mm hm. it doesn't understand i care about healthy us engaging with the rest of the world. i cover foreign policy, national curity. this is a political impasse here. the conflicts, are we telling a good story? we're really interested in taking you in to a place that you might not visit otherwise. and to actually feel as if you were there with . welcome to the stream i manage habit dean. in recent months, india has risen to become the world's 5th largest economy, but at the same time, the divide between the countries richest and poorest appears to be deepening, as highlighted by the anti poverty and geo oxfam. today we ask, why are india's poor being left behind?

ah, joining us today from bangalore. oh ok, say tar phase, a media specialist at oxfam, india, which recently published a report, exploring the impact of wealth and equality in the country. we also have in bangalore route jobs, not jobs, the director at the center for budget and policy studies. her work has explored gender health and education equity. and last but not least in new delhi, i did. jaw is an assistant professor at the institute for studies in industrial development. now you too can join the conversation, send us your questions and comments through our live youtube chat. so, very many things we want to get to, but let's start with the numbers. some of these numbers and oxfam that i want to share with you take a look at this. ah, the richest one percent owning about 40.6 percent of the country's wealth, the poorest, 50 percent. just less than 3 percent of the wealth. now we have billionaires,

in the meantime, are rising from 102 of them in 2020 to 100. 66 in 2022. and the combined wealth of 100 richest people. that's the top richest as $660000000000.00. now, with all those figures in mind, just snap. what's behind the rise of this sort of deepening divide and how serious a problem is. it was hired. i think it's a very, very serious problem. and i was hoping, you know, it's, it's, it's not a, it's on so the policies that approach the supply side growth approach that has been followed the last 10 years is last be responsible for this. and, and we see that, you know, budget after bud that we up to the see, there's no movement away from that. if you take this year's budget, we bought expecting last year's budget, there was

a huge expectation that they would be some kind of really far out between equate, you know, which will be like, well, good start that happen. and this year, despite the fact that there are 2 medals when there was also magic. so you had, for example, new skeptical, been stuff that has been limited to 100000000. but then your income dec club has also the job has also come down to whatever gains you have from the one that gets off from the other. well, and i don't think any quantity is an issue for everybody, you know, and that's, that's the biggest reason why you don't see any much. i want to drill down on that point a little bit later about who this is an issue for who is actually most impacted. but because you brought that up, let's listen to the prime minister himself talking about this when the latest budget was announced in february, take a look. oh my god, go you have the 1st budget of this neck to era will build

a strong foundation for building a developed india. this budget provide stability to those in need and it will fulfill the dreams of today's aspirational society, including villages, poor people, middle class people, and farmers when she thought, well, what if i did? so i'd say hearing that, i mean india's government thing, it's final budget before the general election in 2024 will spur economic growth. critics are saying it'll do the opposite. what do you think the prime minister is that, that india is growing, but we need to ask the question that who is growing for and then the growth is going, you know, this is the story of the indian inequality. the story offered from this by government of india that has authority or failed to come down. economics is this still believe in and the budget is also reflection of that. we are seeing that that this deb claiming that they have increased the budget and education budget, which is true. they have there has been significant,

but it's not enough. the government had promised the hell they would spend 2.5 percent of the g d p. and what education david spent 6 percent of those are the be and it is their own national policy which talks about back. but what we are saying is that, you know, the union government, which is the national government spending, i think less than a half on education and head board. so we need to see that. but there might work, but for, well, that's an important question. who does it work for g? and i want to share with you a video that we have. this is from a union. this is from a clip from my colleague, i'll just pop neo natal from december. but this is a union of farmers. and it's a protest basically, and they're very close to the b j p. so they're certainly affected by this. take a look at it. the an impromptu dawn has broken out at this rally new delhi. the song comes from the rest of the state,

the roger on one of the many regions represented here, pounds of farmers from across india, have gathered to demand the government, lower taxes on fertilizers and other agriculture equipment and increased financial support. now, we want prices that earn as a profit. right now we are not recovering our costs. we are very deep in debt for 3 generations. we have only been passing on i did what is the government doing in order to quote some of these concerns? see the thing is that, like, because i don't, we don't know about this inequality in india. one point up at one point of paying yes. the government, the focus of the amenities based on a job that was sitting, noting that important, you know, i took you a job and do and then the focus is on that

so, so just give me, give me a sec, i understand what you're saying. just now what do you make of, of the b j p 's argument and all of this, i mean, the budget really does put a lot of its faith in private investment. is that going to impact the middle class? and more importantly, the poor class? yeah, actually that's the whole point. see the private investment, you can have faith in private investment. if you see the evidence socket, you look at the last 3 years. it's not the 1st time that the government has put it's faith in the biggest investment. we have seen back continuously that hadn't been the philosophy actually. and that continued in this budget, and we do not see any investment coming up. the investment is actually not rising at all. and one has to understand why that don't feel that these incentives are not enough enough situations. when private investors clearly see that demand is not

growing. and therefore the focus has to be on demand. and i'm afraid we do not see that. so there is a problem in terms of where you are hoping you'll creep in rehab. normally when you are looking at belonged to monta stuff, not really freezing. it's all time low for unless you actually have measures that will build demand, that you will want to see the change. and let me add please. and that it's important that you know, the demand comes from the large number of people and not on number of people. that's the only be for you have to have all the sees that will give money to in the hands for who will who actually spend that that's, that's to be true. and we don't see that. and actually when you have, well nobody got, you know, that that's something it's, it's a clear cut example. then you are actually not just wanting to unmake demands. you

are actually reducing money for something that would have ensured both my room sick. you ought to be, as well as wishing the demand. right. and then, you know, you talk about a large number of people. well, in india, a large number of people, 80 percent, in fact, 8 out of 10 indian support and higher taxes on the rich on corporations. primarily those who benefit benefited during the pandemic with that in mind. i do want to share with you and when you, when you allow me to ask one more cent. sure. what is this that we have? you know, we have, if you look at the white lights situation, we have not done mary bagley when it comes to growth, you know, banged and make a new looking, but it has been a jobless school. so i think employment is a huge concern, especially among the youth, overt on unemployment rate is much longer as compared to the youth unemployment. right, right. i can get spread. we had to focus on, well, no, and i appreciate you bringing that up. i mean, when, when i talk oxy about that,

80 percent, that one attacks on the ritz and, and bigger corporations. you know, we have a social justice activists who's kind of making a criticism that you are mentioning, saying the government not spending enough specifically on programs like health care and education which are so critical. so to take a listen to what. yeah, he shared with us there's an increasing bulk up in india mainly due to an equal access to this so says and provo that stems from systematic discrimination based on cast religion and gender. multiple studies have come from the same and often met of action should be been not the super rich havoc dizzy here that a snow belt tax. and that should be taken care of immediately. and the government expenditure on health and education should be improved. and the distribution of political and fiscal pover should be more towards the states because every state

has a different issue to address. so i did, i want to ask you the finance minister on february 1st introduced the budget. $550000000000.00 budget for critic saying it doesn't include as we just heard from one ah activist there it doesn't include the re introduction of this wealth tax. why not see the 1st thing is that when thanks is not a new concept you need, it was already in an upper environment has to be nervous. then it was the that the, what is the objective up into the if you were to do the text, whether you want to get to collect the venue. because the d test was that when there was a real x in india, the collection was the venue was not that, but the 2nd is that that, that there was a us form in 995 under the tenants and the phone

that we have to put you on when you introduced in the us would be on the product and we missed it again so. so i, well if i can stop you there because just not looks like she might have a response to some of what you're saying. i'm wondering just now if 8 out of 10 indians want to see this wealth tax on, on the written on corporations. is it not possible that it could have the potential to, in fact, dramatically increase lives or, or is what i was saying there? correct. the but the argument oh that one often feel better that from that it that you know, when should be left to will be plea because they know how clean, but i would have bought that you know, 95 that might have been proven to that. but if you look at, you know, as an, as an artist, you know, as long as all the job is to look at them. and then we look over them in current,

you know, off in immediate, contemporary us. we do not find that the look at corporate tax was lloyd the same argument. so it will, you know, it will, it will generate more resources to be invested. that was why we like to go ahead. god jump in there. explain. you weren't, you were shaking your head a lot as we were hearing josma there. why were you shaking her head? i was like to disagree that i didn't i didn't want to say go ahead law did let's, let's move back in india right now. she would have to go beyond its ability to be mentation because we are seeing a lot of other countries which are actually implementing and bringing back well stacks. we have a, we have bolivia and there are a couple of other countries also who are trying to bring the tax back. and i think government control lee, we can really implemented more cleverly and more visibly. and i understand their

tax order and then issue, but i'm sure government has the resources and tactics to address that. i just wanted to add one more point ensure, you know, this is not discussions or, and be just about the budget here. it is a continuous trend indian economy from 2000 while if you see the numbers well, it has been created almost 40 percent of the new well created, had to grab it and only 3, but i don't have that which isn't the public. right. and we'd like to mean you don't have a distribution measure to do my just in please. right. and you know, just to visualize that more, we have a short social video by al jazeera that highlights the controversy over 1000000000 or in particular, gout don, take a look at this with

with of course mr. dani and mr. mckee, very close there. i do want to just ask you straight up, is this a case? does this help strengthen the case that billionaires should be taxed? your thoughts are say yeah, definitely been necessarily more taxed. i mean, that is the most common sense. and i do right now to combat inequality. we are not saying that well, tax is a syllable solution to the all the problem, but it can be a huge step in combating you know, currently existing,

my suffering and health crises and climate crisis and education crisis that india and i did. what do you think? i mean, a should. should billionaires be taxed more and more importantly, what do you think? i think it was the need that to, with being it's or not. the answer is that the start paying the 2nd person is that with is the text into the well text for the, the like less than that the previous but elizabeth thing that then contributed introduced will text. but then i will leave for these and the one that had introduced will tech thought it was 15 countries in 99. i didn't do that. so we have to do the logic on the wednesday or any just sent me that right now. that's all woman selecting the bag out. we're going to see that the movies are not much, but i guess, i guess the question that i'm wondering if i can do, if i can just focus us in a bit, then why do you think there is this growing divide, why?

you know, who is actually missing out on the story of economic growth and success that the b j. p is painting. i did. i did. can you hear me? ok, it seems like maybe i did cannot hear me. let's, let's just know who is missing out. can you answer for us? you know, of course, you know, the, what i think i did, i did forgive me. i think you might have a delay. can you hear me when i did? can you hear me? okay. i think we're having issues forgive me with his audio. we're going to just continue with you. just not as you were saying. yeah, well if you don't want to fat and if you look at the last penny of train, the put it back to collections pub been actually falling down. so i'm not sure all . you know, if richard actually paying the taxes because and it would be because of the fall in the rate. so i'm not saying that you know, that avoiding because, but the tax rate,

when we cut down that have, you know, that logic was that that will actually increase right. selection that does not happen. income tax collections have been going up and collections have been done. if you look at that and i want you, we please gone just and i want to give and, and bed you offer for you that you don't for grant will be, i think it for the major in this field budget. then we are putting a cap on the capital gain stuff because it's a transactional and that alone is not enough. we have gifts that so we have the same, so we'll get in there. but if you look at the exemption, you know, it's almost everybody's exempted for you. you know, i can receive any body, you know, whether you're married on, on or maybe you nice is anybody can box things to you and everything is so, so, and if i may, if i'm in the logic. yeah, go ahead the logical smokestacks. is that the, since one of the most,

you don't rent is something that has nothing to do with who you law. it's not actually comes from the fact that there you are born. yeah. so it's, it's the social capitol, electric. i'm been sick, so therefore it in a context then rich on, you know, the, the used to read as a student or we cannot expect it to become in good temper or becoming florida. but don't we have a good piece of that. and therefore, i think, you know, when you have some major, but the moment you reduce the size chance, you basically offset that. so we have to have a very clear policy that i haven't said demonic growth. so employment should be incentivized and not production. and you have to have taxes and, and then you have to get it those taxes. sure sir. so just let's say, let's take a moment. i do want to kind of go ahead oxy. i know you want to get in there. but, but before we come to you, i wanted to share with our audience, you know, we want to talk about the economic challenges on

a day to day basis that affect the majority of indians. we do have a little clip from, i'll de zera's poverty. ma todd, this is about day laborers who come to new delhi from the villages, looking for work. take, listen o. scenes like this are an every day routine on the outskirts of new delhi. dozens of laborers come to the street every morning to find work. they fix their wages with recruiters and head to the work site. most of them hide and construction is a messiah game with, you know, getting at the tip top says he holds a master's degree, but was forced to leave his village because his job doesn't be enough that companies now bought buddy ball. it's very competitive. there aren't enough jobs that are fuel groman, jobs, and private companies don't be well, it's also difficult for us to get paid on time. the government should fix a minimum beach for daily rate workers make us i say i want to ask you and you tube

we have solid cancer asking which regions are most affected by the economic inequality? is it related to religion or to cast? what were you going to add and what do you make of what the daily laborers were saying there? yeah, so i just wanted to, i thought also the question of who exactly is losing or who is exactly getting most affected by different quality. and that is very straightforward. it countries the wesley muslim, then marginalized women. it's also the informal cause which was throwing in right now on the screen, which form majority also for then government estimated. so say that they might be running like less than $10000.00 or like $100.00 per month. so these are the people who lose and they are dependent on government services. and then you got the government budget when you got forced to go to the budget on which on what 80800000000 people are dependent on it. it's almost always the population of united so, so it's actually, i'm curious, what does more economically fair in the actually look like to you. i think

as i said, the tax go over and must consider. and once you have driven you from the tax, we need to get new localized, public closes documents back to help get better and better. so what, what, what i mean by that is we need more time, i guess in does, we need more doctors? we need more school is because a lot of children are right now out of school, and that would be towards more of an equal india. and just briefly, just now, what would you add to that? you know, what i will add is that it's, it's so you know, when you are doing, then you've got public investment is high on file from education. it also leads to good look at the entire, i mean, i keep arguing this all the time. look at the capital is to europe. it has sized on heavy invest, went on public health and education. so we have to realize that and is stored under

the long term. the people talk about, you know, my, to 31st off the capital investment. i would say that the distributive aspect of market lighting effect off public investment on felton education must be studied bechtel and adopted. that is one under so think it is very important. that technology we're running out of time used. okay, fine. so i would say then basically inclusive, you know, and in messed and not be just a method it, you have to actually back it up with policies that i believe, you know, that make the economy includes. well, we, we have heard from, ah, mira, someone who shared with us the role of philanthropy and all of this, which we haven't discussed as much take a listen to what nero, i'd say during the 2023 budget india's parliament was celebrating impressive economic growth rates. of 7 percent, but we continue to be a country with deep inequalities, 10 percent of our richest,

who got even richer during the pandemic own 80 percent of the wealth. it's clear indian needs to redefine at social contract. and what we can expect from each other in society, irrespective of wealth, there is a growing responsibility for philanthropy to support our most vulnerable communities. we see the rise of family philanthropy shaping a new, a social contract where a 1000000000 thrive with dignity and equity. well, what certainly stood out to me is that statement about india and needing to redefine its social contract. so many different ways to do that. i want to thank our guests for sharing some of their insights on solutions, as well as highlighting what the problem was. remember, you can always find us online, adstream dot al jazeera dot com. thanks for watching. ah,

ah, it a in depth analysis of today's headlines from around the world to try right extremism is real and need to be tackled as soon as possible informed opinion. why is the thing in the opposition concerned about this rather small between turkey, anthea those than really with turkey issues and so forth. frank assessments, you know, that was a joke about the interim government or it's not in, nor does it got inside story on al jazeera. ah,

[000:00:00;00] ah, al jazeera, with tough times, the man tough question. what exactly are you asking for you? what the troops on the ground, the rigorous the rate we challenge conventional wisdom racism is so deeply entrenched in the country that it's identified with america. so when you challenge racism, it looks as if you're challenging americans and demand the truth. there is no serious discussion about this because it goes to the very root of who we are up front with me, mark lamond hill. what out there examining the impact of today's headlines? this is one is the one about ensuring that learning center can continue. how

vulnerable in that setting the agenda for tomorrow's discussions? i don't believe that. i think in miss society that is willing to kill international filmmakers of world class journalists, bring programs to inform and inspire you. we need to have a media ensuring that voice, the hood on al jazeera, we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter how you take it will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you. ah ah hello, this is a news hour on al jazeera, i'm fully back. people live in doha with continuing extensive coverage of the