Measuring people’s incomes is a hard task. There is considerable incentive to both under and overestimate one’s own income while responding to a survey. Thus, a good proxy for measuring incomes is to look at the total consumption expenditure.
One of the assignments for the ongoing batch of the Graduate Certificate in Public Policy Program asked them to analyze how the quality of life in India has changed over the last 50 years. Rishabh Raj responded to the assignment with the graph that is presented below, that shows how the per capita consumption expenditure has grown over the last 50 years. Note that the figures are adjusted for inflation. Offered without further comment:
