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Is ₹5 lakh a month still middle class in India? Entrepreneur says ‘open an idli shop’

Livemint – News

2h ago

Summary

Is a ₹ 5 lakh monthly salary enough to be considered wealthy in India’s top metro cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai? They said true career safety is built through continuous upskilling, professional visibility, and proactive networking before layoffs occur. “Income and security aren't the same thing. A high salary can disappear overnight, but the skills that keep us employable don't. That's the real work after we land the job: not just doing well, but staying connected, staying visible, staying known. We weather layoffs best not when we're the most skilled, but when we've built relationships before we needed them. Therefore, a person with a salary of even 1 lac may find it difficult to be considered middle-income, given his circumstances. And even a person with a 30k salary may be comfortably middle-income,” said another user. She collaborates closely with editors and the audience team to frame angles that resonate with readers in India and abroad, and to translate complex developments into accessible, high‑impact journalism. <br><br> Arshdeep's academic training underpins her interest towards policy and markets. She earned an MA in Economics from Panjab University and holds a Post‑Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from the India Today Media Institute (ITMI). Stay updated with the latest Trending , India , World and US news.

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The entrepreneur noted that the “biggest risk” today isn’t earning less, but “relying on one source of income.”

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T.N. CM Vijay urges PM Modi to relax, modify certain provisions of VB-G RAM G Act

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. However, certain provisions of the VBGRAMG Act, 2025 require critical modifications and relaxations, without which the seamless and effective execution of this scheme on the ground would suffer significantly and would affect the rural population which is dependent on the rural employment programme. On the fund-sharing pattern, the current guidelines mandate a 60:40 ratio between the Union and State across the Wage, Material, and Administrative components. As the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) operated under a different structure for two decades, this abrupt shift places an unsustainable strain on the State exchequer, which may reduce available wage employment days or crowd out other essential welfare schemes, he said. He requested that 100% funding be maintained for the Wage and Administrative components, with the Material component shared on a 75:25 basis between the Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu. “The proposed centralised methodology for classifying Village Panchayats and distribution within the State normative allocations introduces micromanagement. However, unpredictable climate fluctuations such as El Niño frequently alter agricultural timelines, creating sudden unseasonal labour demand or a sharp need for safety-net employment during pre-notified peak periods,” the Chief Minister said. “Instead of advance notification, authority should be decentralised to District Collectors to notify the 60-day peak period dynamically as per local conditions,” he added. The extension of wage employment support to State housing schemes is a vital priority. Vijay added. “Tamil Nadu has consistently been a national forerunner in implementing rural employment guarantees.

Jobs & Hiring1h ago

‘Saddest day for the country’: Congress slams Centre as VB-G RAM G wage rates get notified

With the wage rates under the VB-G RAM G getting notified on Tuesday, the Congress hit out at the Centre, saying the Act effectively repealed the MGNREGA by replacing a demand-driven legal entitlement with a centrally controlled, allocation-based programme. Addressing a press conference at the Congress office in New Delhi, Lok Sabha MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Saptagiri Ulaka, said the new framework dismantles the statutory guarantee of work available to rural households and weakens workers’ rights by making employment contingent on pre-approved budgetary allocations rather than actual demand. “Today is the saddest day for the country,” he said. Ulaka, an MP from Koraput in Odisha, said that under MGNREGA, any registered rural household could demand work, and the administration was legally obligated to provide employment within the stipulated time or pay an unemployment allowance. Funding, he said, followed certified demand, making the scheme rights-based. He said the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025, fundamentally changes this framework by shifting to a supply-based model in which employment depends on advance budget allocations, approved labour budgets, centrally determined ceilings, state contributions and administrative capacity. He also criticised the proposed funding pattern under VB-G RAM G as part of which, in most cases, Centre’s share has been reduced to 60% while states would now have to contribute 40% of programme expenditure. He demanded withdrawal of the proposed funding structure under VB -G RAM G, restoration of the Centre’s responsibility for guaranteeing employment, protection of job cards from arbitrary deletion, and removal of administrative barriers to employment. Congress’s communications in charge Jairam Ramesh, meanwhile, said that “the injustice of the Modi government’s new law aside, the wages due to workers are also unjustifiably low – largely at Rs 300 per day”. The Rajya Sabha MP said, “In the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign, the Congress, as part of its Shramik Nyay campaign, had guaranteed a Rs 400 national daily minimum wage to all workers – including for MGNREGA. The expert committee headed by Dr Anoop Satpathy, set up by the Modi government, had also recommended a national minimum wage floor at Rs 375 per day, back in 2019.” “Given the widespread minimum wage protests in industrial hubs like Noida, and at a time when the stagnation of rural wages is widely recognised as a key constraint on our economic growth, this notification is both a snub to India’s workers and an unwise economic policy,” added Ramesh in a statement.

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Is ₹5 lakh a month still middle class in India? Entrepreneur says ‘open an idli shop’

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