Muslim Population (%)

The Census office had compiled this data by March last year, but the UPA government held back the release, perhaps fearing political repercussions of the findings on the eve of Lok Sabha elections.

A report prepared on the issue in 1988 by the then governor of Assam, Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha, had warned that illegal immigration was slowly changing the demographic profile in several districts. The Supreme Court has on more than one occasion expressed concern over the change in demography and chided the government for not stopping infiltration from Bangladesh.

Muslim Population (%)

(Percentage of total sate population)

State	2001	2011	Growth	State	2001	2011	Growth
Lakshadeep	95.5	96.2	0.7	Tripura	8.0	8.6	0.6
Jammu & Kashmir	67.0	68.2	1.3	Daman & Diu	7.8	7.8	0.0
Assam	30.9	34.2	3.3	Goa	6.8	8.4	1.5
West Bengal	25.2	27.0	1.8	Madhya Pradesh	6.4	6.6	0.2
Kerela	24.7	26.6	1.9	Pondicherry	6.1	6.1	0.0
Uttar Pradesh	18.5	19.3	0.8	Haryana	5.8	7.0	1.2
Bihar	16.5	16.9	0.3	Tamil Nadu	5.6	5.9	0.3
Jharkhand	13.8	14.5	0.7	Meghalaya	4.3	4.4	0.1
Karnataka	12.2	12.9	0.7	Chandigarh	3.9	4.8	0.9
Uttaranchal	11.9	13.9	2.0	Dadra & Nagar Haveli	3.0	3.8	0.8
Delhi	11.7	12.9	1.1	Orissa	2.1	2.2	0.1
Maharashtra	10.6	11.5	0.9	Himachal Pradesh	2.0	2.2	0.2
Andhra Pradesh	9.2	9.6	0.4	Chhattisgarh	2.0	2.0	0.0
Gujarat	9.1	9.7	0.6	Arunachal Pradesh	1.9	2.0	0.1
Manipur	8.8	8.4	-0.4	Nagaland	1.8	2.5	0.7
Rajasthan	8.5	9.1	0.6	Punjab	1.6	1.9	0.3
Andaman & Nicobar Islands	8.2	8.4	0.2	Sikkim	1.4	1.6	0.2
				Mizoram	1.1	1.4	0.3

Ref: TOI dated 22.01.2015

Maximum Rise in Assam

·         Nationally, percentage of Muslims in total population went up from 13.4% in 2001 to 14.2% in 2001

·         Assam recorded highest increase in share of Muslims, from 3.9% of the state’s population to 34.2%

·         Other states that showed high increase in share of population are Uttarakhand (2 percentage points), Kerala (1.9), west Bengal (1.8), Goa (1.6) and J&K (1.3)

·         Lowest rise in Meghalaya, Odisha & Arunachal (0.1 percentage pts)

J&K (68.3%), Assam (34.2), Bengal (27%) have largest share of Muslims

World’s top 80 billionaires

A study by Oxfam revealed that the world’s top 80 billionaires in 2014 has a collective wealth of $1.9 trillion. 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 50% (3.5 billion people).  That figure is now 80 – a dramatic fall from 388 people in 2010. The wealth of the richest 80 actually doubled in cast terms between 2009 and 2014.

The study shows that the very richest of the top 1% of the billionaires on the Forbes list have seen their wealth accumulate even faster over the past five years. In 2010, the richest 80 people in the world had a net wealth of $1.3 trillion. By 2014, the 80 people who top Forbes rich list, whose data Oxfam used, had a collective wealth of $1.9 trillion; an increase of $600 billion in just four years. And, it it’s not as if the very poor have the remaining 52% of global wealth. Almost all of it (46%) is owned by the “less wealthy” – the remaining richest 19% of the world’s population. The other bottom 80% shares just 5.5%, and had an average wealth of $3,851 per adult – that’s 1/700^th of the average wealth of the 1%  .

Ref: TOI dated 20.01.2015