India, March 9 -- How much do Indian households spend compared to what they earn? Is the earning-spending gap higher in villages or cities? What about debt? Are the rich more indebted or the poor? These questions are important at a time when household debt has become a key driver of overall credit growth in India and aspirational spending, as well as politically motivated cash transfers are the highest they have ever been. HT has analyzed government data on wages, consumption and assets/liabilities to answer some of these questions. Here is what it shows.

India does not have official income statistics. What it does have is employment data where we do get some idea about what people earn. The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) classifies...