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Whither the middle class?

How to arrest a worldwide decline

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Illustration: Ajay Mohanty

Ajit Balakrishnan
As a son and grandson of doctors and a firm believer in a meritocratic education system, and thus a staunch Indian middle-class man, I get anxious when I read headlines in Indian as well as American and European media about the apparent dramatic decline in the middle class underway in the world.

PEW Research Center, a reputed American think tank, says that “the middle class in India is estimated to have shrunk by 32 million in 2020 as a consequence of the downturn, compared with the number it may have reached absent the pandemic”. Another report in the Journal of
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

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