At Davos, leaders must discuss rising inequality

The world is in a much better shape than last year when the leaders converged for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The discussions then revolved a lot around the appointment of Donald Trump as the head of the United States and what would that mean for the world at large. A year on, clearly the rhetoric of ‘America First’ is still going strong, and we might again hear an impassioned speech on similar lines at Davos platform when Trump addresses delegates from more than 110 nations. The US President and other state leaders such as the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are likely to grab headlines as they take centrestage and talk about topical issues of trade, geopolitical risks and economic growth. But in the midst of this all, the issue that really needs to be highlighted and talked about with utmost urgency is the rising inequality globally.

The world is doing well with flourishing trade and expanding economies — better than what was expected a year ago. In fact for the first time since the financial crisis all the major regions of the world are growing at a synchronised pace. Yet it’s the top of the pyramid that is benefitting the most, and not the people at the grassroots. According to Oxfam, the inequality crisis is a far bigger than what many had feared it to be. The eight richest people on our planet hold the same total amount of wealth as the poorest four billion, who make up half of the world population. Seven out of 10 people live in a country that has seen a rise in inequality in the last 30 years. What’s more worrisome is that the World Bank doubts if the world would be able to achieve its goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 if leaders don’t redouble their efforts to tackle global inequality. Globalisation has its merits. It has arguably helped a lot of people move out of poverty, but its benefits haven’t been equitable, to say the least. It is about time that politicians, leaders and executives at global meets such as Davos use the platform to give growing inequality due attention as they normally would to other pertinent issues.