This scene is familiar to millions: dinner on the stove, children wrapping up homework, phone reminders for office meetings next morning. This is what normal looks like ...
The paradox is familiar to millions of urban Indians. Pay slips look respectable, promotions arrive on time, yet savings ...
In 1980, neither China nor India had much representation in the “global middle class” — people who neither belong to the bottom half of the income distribution nor rank among the top 10% worldwide.
The Indian middle class did not lose stability overnight. It is losing it gradually—structurally and almost invisibly.
Debating whether 3 lakh rupees makes someone an “Indian-equivalent lakhpati” misses the larger truth. The real story is not about currency conversion, but about economic decay.