SCALE OF INEQUALITY Income Group Average Avg income (K) Wealth Share (%) 2,34,551 Average wealth (K) 1922 Share (%) 13,49,029 Bottom 50% 71,163 15.0 1,73,184 6.4 Middle 40% 1,65,273 27.3 9,63,560 28.6 Top 10% 13,52,985 57.7 87,70,132 65.0 Top 1% 53,00,549 22.6 54,141,525 40.1 *As of 2022-23 KOCHI l thursday l march 21, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION Source: World Inequality Lab EXPRESS READ ‘Suresh Gopi is always welcome’ Thrissur: Kalamandalam Gopi on Wednesday said Suresh Gopi, NDA’s candidate for the Thrissur LS seat, was always welcome to visit him. In an FB post, he also emphasied the bond the duo shared as artists. Social media was abuzz after Gopi Asan’s son alleged a doctor had tried to arrange a meeting of the actor-politician with the kathakali maestro to seek the latter’s blessings. P4 EC to act against Union min Shobha Bengaluru: The Election Commission (EC) officials are examining a complaint by DMK leaders seeking action against Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje for alleging that a person from Tamil Nadu was responsible for the blast that took place at The Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru on March 1. Meanwhile, Karandlaje retracted her remarks and issued an apology. P5 IMD predicts light to moderate rain T’Puram: The IMD has predicted light to moderate rainfall across Kerala till Saturday. All districts except Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram will get rain on Thursday. The rain is likely to be widespread across the state on Friday. P5 16 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express Modi nudges Zelenskyy, Putin to resolve conflict PM urges the two leaders to hold talks. Zelenskyy thanks India for support, Putin conveys wishes for successful conduct of LS polls Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday used the o p p o r t u n i t y o f g re e t i n g Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian President by nudging him during their telephonic conversation to resolve the ongoing Ukraine war through dialogue and diplomacy . He had a similar message for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his separate conversation with him. “I spoke with President Putin and congratulated him on his re-election and also agreed to work together to further deepen and expand India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic Par tnership in the years ahead,” Modi said. Narendra Modi Vladimir Putin Volodymyr Zelenskyy “Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the consistent and dynamic development of mutually beneficial ties in trade, economy, energy, and transport,” a Russian readout of the call said. “An exchange of views was also held on a number of issues on the international agenda, in particular in the context of the situation around Ukraine,” the Kremlin’s statement said. President Putin conveyed his wishes to Modi for the success- ful conduct of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Modi is one of the few world leaders who have congratulated Putin for his re-election. Speaking to Zelenskyy, Modi assured India will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, guided by its “people-centric” approach. The prime minister reiterated India’s consistent support for all efforts for peace and bringing an early end to the ongoing conflict. Zelenskyy thanked India for its support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, humanitarian aid, and active participation in Peace Formula meetings. The two leaders discussed ways to further strengthen the partnership in various spheres. 13% of national income pocketed by the top 1% 1982 6.1% of national income went to the top 1% 2022 * 22.6% of national income with top 1% ‘Inequality today worse than under British Raj’ D i pa k M o nd a l @ New Delhi India is more unequal now than it was under the British rule, says a paper released by Paris-based World Inequality Lab. The report, co-authored by Nitin Kumar Bharti, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi, also recommends a 2% super tax on the net wealth of the wealthiest families to generate resources for public investment. The report says top-end inequality peaked between 2014-15 and 2022-23, driven by wealth concentration. By 2022-23, India’s top 1% income and wealth shares (22.6% and 40.1%) were at their highest historical levels. For context, the US’s top 1% income share was 21%. The report cautions such high levels inequality could trigger concentration of income and wealth, which could in turn negatively influence the society and the government at large. To arrive at these conclusions, the inequality report has taken into consideration the national income accounts, wealth aggregates, tax tabulations, rich lists, and surveys on income, consumption, and wealth. The report calls for a restructuring of India’s tax system to account for both income and wealth. It also stresses on the need for generating resources for investments in health and education to enable the common man to benefit from the ongoing wave of globalisation. The government should tap India’s wealthiest families to generate resources for public investments, it says, adding that India’s 167 wealthiest families in 202223 would yield 0.5% of national income in revenues. ‘Surgical strike’ on CPM? Rajendran-Javadekar meet creates buzz E X P R ESS N E W S SE R V I C E @T’Puram/Idukki Former CPM state committee member and MLA S Rajendran held a meeting with BJP Kerala prabhari Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi on Wednesday trig, gering speculation that the three-term legislator may join the saffron party The meeting . came to light after a photo of Rajendran and Javadekar went viral. Both Rajendran and Java- to engineer the defeat of LDF dekar were unavailable for candidate A Raja in the 2021 ascomment. The LDF Idukki dis- sembly elections. Rajendran switching alletrict leadership said it was unaware of the meeting, and ac- giance to the BJP will come as a setback for the CPM, cused the BJP of trying which has been conto woo its leaders with stantly attacking the offers of money . Congress and painting it Rajendran was electas unreliable after seved from Devikulam in eral leaders of the grand the 2006, 2011 and 2016 old party, including Padassembly elections. He maja Venugopal, joined was suspended from the S Rajendran the BJP recently. It is CPM in 2022 for trying learnt that the BJP Idukki district leadership and party leaders from Tamil Nadu had held several rounds of talks with Rajendran in recent months. A senior BJP leader who attended Wednesday’s meeting, told TNIE that Rajendran “did not raise any condition or objection during the discussions.” “He also informed us about some issues of plantation labourers that he sought to bring to the Centre’s attention,” said the leader. CPI Idukki district secretary K K Sivaraman told reporters that BJP was widely seen as attempting to poach leaders from other parties by offering them money . “I don’t think anyone will fall into this trap. If a CPM member does accept their invitation, I will definitely term the development unfortunate,” he said, adding that he came to know about the meeting through me● More on P4 dia reports. CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■ Petitions in SC as govt notifies Fact Check Unit ahead of polls Rakesh kuma r & Pa rv ez sulta n @ New Delhi Ahead of the general elections, the gover nment on Wednesday notified the Fact Check Unit under the Press Information Bureau to monitor content on social media tied to the Centre. The unit was notified under the 2021 IT Rules. According to the new regulation, if a government information is misrepresented on any online platform, the fact-checking unit will flag it. Social media platforms and other online intermediaries will then decide on taking down the content. If they refuse to drop the content, they risk losing the protections granted under Section 79 of the IT Act. This section provides immunity to online platforms from content posted by users and third parties. The notification comes a week after the Bombay High Court rejected a petition filed by Editors Guild of India and others against the fact checker. They argued that the regulations could lead to censorship of free speech in the country . The Editors Guild has now filed a petition before the Supreme Court. “We remain opposed to it because I don’t think that in a democratic country like us, the government alone can decide what is fake information,” said Editors Guild general secretary Ruben Banerjee. Political satirist Kunal Kamra, too, has moved the SC.
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