Bringing this article into the forum for starting off discussions.
The economic reforms that were initiated 30 years ago in 1991 strengthened the Indian middle class and gave it a greater economic and political voice. The middle class changed the way in which India dealt with environmental, public health and governance issues.
The high disease burden and the death rate in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic have hit the middle class hard and could buck the trend that had been continuing since 1991, writes Mongabay-India managing editor Gopikrishna Warrier in this commentary.
Read: Will the COVID second wave turn the tide for the Indian middle class?