# Mukesh Ambani earned Rs 90 crore an hour during pandemic
RNS: The coronavirus pandemic has badly hit the economy and put millions out of jobs, making India the sixth largest rank after the US, China, Germany, Russia and France, by increasing 35 per cent during the lockdown period and by 90 per cent (422.9 billion UDS) since 2009, reveals Oxfam’s latest study report.
In only 9 months, the world’s 1.000 richest people recovered from the pandemic’s economic repercussion, but it could take more than ten years for the poorest people to recover, says the study entitled “The Inequality Virus” released on the opening day of the “Davos Agenda” of the World Economic Forum.
The Indian top-100 billionaires have seen their fortunes increase by Rs 12,97 trillion since the government announced the lockdown in March. The money was enough to :give every one of the 138 million poorest Indians a cheque for Rs 94,045 each”.
“We have seen the greatest increase in inequality since records started. The profound division between rich and poor is just as lethal as the virus,” says Gabriela Bucher, Oxfam International’s Executive Director.
Worldwide, billionaires saw their wealth increase by a staggering $3.9 trillion between March 18 and December 31, 2020. Their total wealth now stands at $11.95 trillion, which is equivalent to what G20 governments have spent in response to the pandemic, reported different media.
Only three of the 50 richest billionaires in the world saw their fortunes diminish over that period, losing $3 billion between them.
“Elon Musk increased his net wealth by $128.9bn, Jeff Bezos by $78.2 billion. The world’s 10 richest billionaires have collectively seen their wealth increase by $540bn over this period,” the report mentioned.
The report showed that COVID-19 has the potential to increase economic inequality in almost every country at once, the first time this has happened since records began over a century ago.
“Rising inequality means it could take at least 14 times longer for the number of people living in poverty to return to pre-pandemic levels than it took for the fortunes of the top 1,000, mostly White male, billionaires to bounce back,” the findings showed.
Oxfam’s report showed how the rigged economic system is enabling a super-rich elite to amass wealth in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression while billions of people are struggling to make ends meet.
It revealed how the pandemic is deepening long-standing economic, racial and gender divides.
