Indian middle class's gains in the last 12 years

More money in the pocket, better infrastructure, and the digital transformation have fuelled even larger aspirations — allowing a confident, better-served citizenry to demand more

- V Anantha Nageswaran

Twelve years is long enough to change the texture of daily life, and in India, between 2014 and 2026, it has.

The changes are visible in the household budget, in the morning commute, in the medical bill that is no longer paid out of pocket, and in the tax return no longer needing to be filed. India’s middle class — that vast and expanding constituency of aspiration now comprising nearly a third of the population — experiences policy not as headline reform but as altered circumstance. The altered circumstances of 2026, compared with 2014, are considerable.

Let's begin with the most tangible — money in the pocket. In 2014, the income-tax exemption threshold stood at ₹2.5 lakh. Today, under the new tax regime, a salaried individual earning up to ₹12.75 lakh pays nothing to the exchequer. That is not a marginal adjustment; it is a structural re-drawing of the relationship between the State and the earning household — a recognition that the salaried middle class, which cannot hide income and has always borne a disproportionate share of the direct-tax burden, deserves relief.