Compounding inequality

加劇不平等

India’s super-rich are getting much richer

印度的超級(jí)富豪正變得越來越富有

Even as the economy shrinks by a tenth

即使經(jīng)濟(jì)萎縮了十分之一

Dec 5th 2020 | DELHI

OME PEOPLE?have almost all the luck. Over the past year, as India’s economy has shrunk by around a tenth and tens of millions of Indians have lost jobs or sunk into poverty, the fortunes of the country’s two richest people have?swollen. Gautam Adani, whose conglomerate sprawls from ports to coal mines to food, has seen his personal wealth more than double, to some $32bn. Mukesh Ambani’s riches, which derive from oil refining, telecoms and retail, among other things, have grown by just 25%, albeit to an intimidating $75bn or so.

有些人幾乎擁有所有的運(yùn)氣。過去一年里，隨著印度經(jīng)濟(jì)縮水約十分之一，數(shù)千萬印度人失去工作或陷入貧困，（但）印度最富有的兩個(gè)人的財(cái)富開始膨脹。Gautam Adani的企業(yè)集團(tuán)業(yè)務(wù)遍及港口、煤礦和食品等領(lǐng)域，他的個(gè)人財(cái)富增長(zhǎng)了一倍多，達(dá)到約320億美元。Mukesh Ambani的財(cái)富來自煉油、電信和零售等行業(yè)，盡管已達(dá)到令人生畏的750億美元左右，但僅增長(zhǎng)了25%。

詞匯

?Swollen/膨脹；隆起

Conglomerate/企業(yè)集團(tuán)

?oil refining/煉油

albeit / 雖然，盡管

?intimidating /使人望而生畏的態(tài)度；令人緊張不安的

??

?

The share of wealth and income going to the top 1% has been rising rapidly in recent years in India, as it has been in many countries. Last year they hoovered up 21.4% of earnings, just ahead of their counterparts in Russia, according to the World Inequality Database. Credit Suisse, a bank, puts their share of India’s wealth at 39%, well ahead of the richest 1% of Americans or Chinese. Most alarmingly, in India some of the rich have become super-rich by using their heft to crush smaller competitors and thus corner multiple chunks of the economy. The tilt in fortunes has rewarded not so much technical innovation or productivity growth or the opening of new markets as the wielding of political influence and privileged access to capital to capture and protect existing markets.

與許多國家一樣，印度最富有的1%人群在財(cái)富和收入中所占的比例近年來一直在迅速上升。根據(jù)世界不平等數(shù)據(jù)庫(World Inequality Database)的數(shù)據(jù)，去年他們的收入增長(zhǎng)了21.4%，略高于俄羅斯同行。瑞士信貸銀行認(rèn)為他們占印度財(cái)富的39%，遠(yuǎn)高于美國和中國最富有的1%。最令人擔(dān)憂的是，在印度，一些富人利用自己的影響力碾壓較小的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手，從而成為超級(jí)富豪，從而壟斷了經(jīng)濟(jì)的多個(gè)領(lǐng)域。財(cái)富的傾斜所帶來的回報(bào)，與其說是技術(shù)創(chuàng)新、生產(chǎn)率增長(zhǎng)或新市場(chǎng)的開放，不如說是政治影響力的發(fā)揮和獲得資本的特權(quán)，以獲取和保護(hù)現(xiàn)有市場(chǎng)。

詞匯

?hoover up/聚集

?tilt / 傾斜，翹起

?

Merely a decade ago, according to data compiled by Marcellus, an investment-advice firm, among listed firms in India the 20 most profitable generated less than a third of profits. They now account for 70%. A study by Krishna Kant, a journalist, reveals that between 2014 and 2018 competition within ten different industries, from aviation to tyres, deteriorated markedly.

根據(jù)投資咨詢公司Marcellus匯編的數(shù)據(jù)，僅僅在十年前，在印度上市公司中，利潤(rùn)最高的20家公司所創(chuàng)造的利潤(rùn)還不到三分之一?，F(xiàn)在他們占了70%。記者Krishna Kant的一項(xiàng)研究顯示，2014年至2018年間，從航空到輪胎，十個(gè)不同行業(yè)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)明顯惡化。

詞匯

?Aviation/航空

?Tyre/ 輪胎

?

Across Indian markets, only the shares of giant firms have gained consistently over the past decade, says Rohit Chandra of IIT?Delhi, a university. International investors have noticed, and now bet increasingly not on promising new firms but on big old ones, which they expect to get even bigger. The government boasts that the five months from April to August saw a record $36bn in foreign investment, suggesting that its wise policies have sustained confidence during the covid-19 epidemic. What it trumpets less loudly is that more than half of that money, including hefty investments from Facebook and Google, poured into Mr Ambani’s hands alone.

印度理工學(xué)院德里分校的Rohit Chandra說，在過去的十年里，印度市場(chǎng)上只有大公司的股票持續(xù)上漲。國際投資者已經(jīng)注意到了這一點(diǎn)，他們現(xiàn)在越來越多地不再把賭注押在有前途的新公司上，而是押在那些他們希望變得更大的老公司上。政府夸耀說，從4月到8月的5個(gè)月里，外國投資達(dá)到創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的360億美元，表明其明智的政策在新冠疫情期間保持了信心。但它不那么高調(diào)宣揚(yáng)的是，其中超過一半的資金，包括來自Facebook和谷歌的巨額投資，都流入了Ambani（開篇提及的印度最富有兩人之一）的手中。

It is easy to understand why. Things have a way of turning out as Mr Ambani wishes. Back in 2016, for instance, the tycoon used his massive earnings from petrochemicals to take a $25bn gamble, plunging into the maturing mobile-phone market. His timing was Exquisite. Just as he rolled out a free service to lure customers, the government withdrew 86% of the country’s paper currency, leaving most of India strapped for cash and eager to find savings. Rival companies also found themselves burdened by lawsuits and crushing penalties for back taxes. Regulators ignored complaints. “If his firm were Chinese?it would have been charged with dumping,” says one economist.

原因很容易理解。事情會(huì)按照 Ambani先生的意愿發(fā)展。例如，早在2016年，這位大亨就利用他從石化行業(yè)獲得的巨額利潤(rùn)進(jìn)行了一場(chǎng)250億美元的賭博，進(jìn)軍成熟的手機(jī)市場(chǎng)。他的時(shí)機(jī)把握得非常巧妙。就在他推出一項(xiàng)吸引顧客的免費(fèi)服務(wù)時(shí)，政府取出了印度86%的紙幣，這使得印度大部分地區(qū)現(xiàn)金短缺，迫切希望找到儲(chǔ)蓄。競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手也發(fā)現(xiàn)自己被訴訟和補(bǔ)繳稅款的沉重罰金所累。監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)忽略了投訴。一位經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家說:“如果他的公司是中國的，就會(huì)被指控傾銷?！?/span>

詞匯

Tycoon/企業(yè)界大亨，巨頭；巨富

Exquisite/精致的；細(xì)膩的

?

?

Mr Adani enjoys a similar Midas touch. In early 2019 his group, which controls around a quarter of India’s port capacity, ventured into a new field when the government tendered six 50-year airport-management contracts. Competing against established firms, Mr Adani nevertheless won all six. He has since bought two more, including a 74% share in Mumbai airport, India’s second-busiest. More recently, Mr Adani has counterbalanced big stakes in coal-fired power with lots of renewable energy, winning a $6bn government contract in June for various solar projects. The share price of Adani Green Energy, a subsidiary, has risen tenfold since March.

Adani也有類似的點(diǎn)石成金的本領(lǐng)。2019年初，他的集團(tuán)進(jìn)入了一個(gè)新領(lǐng)域，政府競(jìng)標(biāo)了6份為期50年的機(jī)場(chǎng)管理合同。該集團(tuán)控制著印度約四分之一的港口運(yùn)力。盡管與老牌公司競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，Adani還是贏得了全部6個(gè)合同。此后，他又收購了另外兩家機(jī)場(chǎng)，其中包括印度第二大機(jī)場(chǎng)孟買機(jī)場(chǎng)74%的股份。最近，Adani用大量可再生能源來平衡燃煤發(fā)電的巨大股份，今年6月，他贏得了一份60億美元的政府合同，負(fù)責(zé)多個(gè)太陽能項(xiàng)目。自3月份以來，子公司Adani Green Energy的股價(jià)已經(jīng)上漲了10倍。

詞匯

Tenfold/十倍的；十重的

?Subsidiary/ 子公司；附屬機(jī)構(gòu)

Some of India’s tycoons have prospered because they have learned not just to weather unpredictability, but to game the system. That system, alas, is failing India’s poor. Measures of malnutrition and stunting reveal an alarming backward slide over the past year. The unemployment rate shows some recovery from the worst of the covid shock, but that fails to capture the astonishing bleakness of India’s labour market. Before covid hit, barely 40% of adults were in paid work, according to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy, a research firm. Now only 36% are. The rest, including legions of housewives, see no point in even looking for a job. ■

印度的一些大亨之所以能夠興旺發(fā)達(dá)，是因?yàn)樗麄儾粌H學(xué)會(huì)了應(yīng)對(duì)不可預(yù)測(cè)性，還學(xué)會(huì)了玩弄體制。唉，這個(gè)體系讓印度的窮人失望了。營養(yǎng)不良和發(fā)育不良的指標(biāo)顯示，（印度）過去一年出現(xiàn)了令人擔(dān)憂的倒退。失業(yè)率顯示出從新冠沖擊最糟糕的時(shí)期有所復(fù)蘇，但這未能反映出印度勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)令人震驚的低迷。根據(jù)研究公司印度經(jīng)濟(jì)監(jiān)控中心的數(shù)據(jù)，在新冠爆發(fā)之前，僅有40%的成年人有帶薪工作?，F(xiàn)在只有36%。其余的人，包括大量的家庭主婦，甚至認(rèn)為找工作都沒有意義?！?/span>

詞匯

Malnutrition/營養(yǎng)失調(diào)，營養(yǎng)不良

?Stunting/發(fā)育障礙短小癥