Biz Masala

  BIZ MASALA INVESTIGATION   |   SERIES Part Four of Who Owns the Wealth, Who Wields the Power? A 2025 field study of Surat explores how local industries, political networks and elected representatives intersect. Illustration: AI-generated editorial artwork; it depicts no real person or event. The story A city-specific view of business in politics National debates often focus on large corporations and central policy. A study of Surat offers a local perspective: which elected representatives list business as an occupation, how networks connect commerce and politics, and how a city’s economic structure shapes those relationships. In a 2025 article in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, researcher Pratim Ghosal examines Surat through fieldwork, interviews and election-affidavit information. The paper reports that all ten MLAs elected from Surat’s constituencies in 2012 and 2017 listed business as their occupation; in 2022, eight of ten did so. The author...

  BIZ MASALA INVESTIGATION   |   SERIES Part Three of Who Owns the Wealth, Who Wields the Power? An academic study combines election affidavits with fieldwork during the 2024 campaign, while keeping its claims within the states and districts it examined. Illustration: AI-generated editorial artwork; it depicts no real person or event. The story What the affidavit data show A 2024 study in Economic & Political Weekly by Ward Berenschot, Sarthak Bagchi and Vignesh Karthik K R examines declared wealth and business backgrounds among candidates in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. The researchers report that the average declared wealth of winning Andhra Pradesh MLAs rose from ₹3.25 crore in 2009 to ₹60.74 crore in 2024, about an 18-fold increase. In Odisha, the average rose from ₹1.75 crore to ₹6.14 crore, about 3.5-fold. The comparison is based on candidates’ affidavits. It describes declared assets, not independently audited net worth, and the averages do not es...

  BIZ MASALA INVESTIGATION   |   SERIES Part Two of Who Owns the Wealth, Who Wields the Power? Different sources count different things. A business background, a profession entry and declared wealth are related clues, but they are not the same measure. Illustration: AI-generated editorial artwork; it depicts no real person or event. The story A significant presence, measured in different ways How many members of India’s Parliament come from business? The answer depends on what is being counted. A 2019 study by political scientists Aseema Sinha and Andrew Wyatt found that 154 of the 542 Lok Sabha MPs they analysed—28.4%—described themselves as having a business background. The authors argued that business connections may be missed when an MP lists another profession or when commercial interests are held by family members. A separate 2024 analysis of parliamentary profiles by The Indian Express found that 100 members of the 18th Lok Sabha, or 18.45%, listed ...

  BIZ MASALA INVESTIGATION   |   PART ONE What election affidavits and regional research reveal about business in public life By Murthy ASR More than nine in ten Lok Sabha winners in 2024 declared assets above ₹1 crore. Research also finds a sizeable business presence among MPs and documents local pathways between business and politics. Together, these findings raise questions about representation and influence. They do not, on their own, prove that wealth buys policy or that politicians used office to build their fortunes. Illustrative image created for this article. It does not depict a real individual, documented meeting or specific event. A Parliament increasingly dominated by declared wealth The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed election affidavits filed by the candidates who won the 2024 Lok Sabha election. It found that 504 of 543 winners—93%—declared assets above ₹1 crore. The share was 88% in 2019, 82% in 2014 and 58% in 2009. Each...