Indian billionaires saw their combined fortunes more than double during the Covid-19 pandemic, and their count shot up by 39 per cent to 142, while the wealth of the 10 richest is enough to fund school and higher education of children in the country for 25 years, a new study showed on Monday.

In its annual inequality survey released on the first day of the World Economic Forum’s online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam India further said that an additional 1 per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent can provide the country with nearly 17.7 lakh extra oxygen cylinders, while a similar wealth tax on the 98 richest billionaire families would finance Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest health insurance scheme, for more than seven years.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw a huge rush for oxygen cylinders and insurance claims during the second wave last year.

On wealth inequality, the Oxfam report further said 142 Indian billionaires collectively own wealth of $719 billion (over Rs 53 lakh crore), while the richest 98 of them now have the same wealth as the poorest 55.5 crore people in the bottom 40 per cent ($657 billion or nearly Rs 49 lakh crore).