Per capita national income in India FY 2015-2023
National income indicators
While GNI (Gross National Income) and NNI are both indicators for a country’s economic performance and welfare, the GNI is related to the GDP plus the net receipts from abroad, including wages and salaries, property income, net taxes and subsidies receivable from abroad. On the other hand, the NNI of a country is equal to its GNI net of depreciation. In 2020, India ranked second amongst the Asia Pacific countries in terms of its gross national income. This has been possible due to a favorable GDP growth in India.
Measuring wealth versus welfare
National income per person or per capita is often used as an indicator of people's standard of living and welfare. However, critics object to this by citing that since it is a mean value, it does not reflect the real income distribution. In other words, a small wealthy class of people in the country can skew the per capita income substantially, even though the average population has no change in income. This is exemplified by the fact that in India, the top one percent of people, control over 40 percent of the country’s wealth.