The National Council of Applied Economic Research has released numbers about the number of Indian households at different income levels, for 2001 and 2010. I couldn't find the paper online with a quick search, but there's a story here. (The headline is a bit polemical, but whatever)
I tabulated the numbers:
| Number of Households (millions) | ||||
| 2001 | % | 2010 | % | |
| Low income | 65.2 | 34.6% | 41 | 18.0% |
| Middle income | 109.2 | 58.0% | 140.7 | 61.6% |
| High income | 13.8 | 7.3% | 46.7 | 20.4% |
| Total | 188.2 | 228.4 | ||
Low income is defined as being under 45k INR p.a. (~1k USD today, nominal), while "high" income is 180k INR/~4k USD, where all numbers are at 2001 prices. I don't know if household composition changed any over the past ten years, but I imagine it isn't a huge effect.
Sounds to me like the optimistic narrative re Indian economic growth isn't that far off…
Accidental Blogger 
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