Crony wealth in India reduces to 3.4% of GDP Vs 18% in 2008

May 9, 2016

New Delhi, May 9: India is ranked at ninth position in crony-capitalism with crony sector wealth accounting for 3.4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), according to a new study by The Economist.

In India, the non-crony sector wealth amounts to 8.3 percent of the GDP, as per the latest crony-capitalism index.

In 2014 ranking also, India stood at the ninth place.

Using data from a list of the world’s billionaires and their worth published by Forbes, each individual is labelled as crony or not based on the source of their wealth.

Germany is cleanest, where just a sliver of the country’s billionaires derives their wealth from crony sectors.

Russia fares worst in the index, wealth from the country’s crony sectors amounts to 18 per cent of its GDP, it said.

Russia tops the list followed by Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

“Thanks to tumbling energy and commodity prices politically connected tycoons have been feeling the squeeze in recent years,” the study said.

Among the 22 economies in the index, crony wealth has fallen by USD 116 billion since 2014.

“But as things stand, if commodity prices rebound, crony capitalists wealth is sure to rise again,” it added.

The past 20 years have been a golden age for crony capitalists/tycoons active in industries where chumminess with government is part of the game.

Their combined fortunes have dropped 16 percent since 2014, according to The Economist updated crony-capitalism index.

“One reason is the commodity crash. Another is a backlash from the middle class,” it said.

Worldwide, the worth of billionaires in crony industries soared by 385 percent between 2004 and 2014 to USD 2 trillion, it added.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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