New Delhi: The middle-class definition in India has been a topic of discussion for quite some time now. Due to increased earning possibilities and social media influence on living standards, the definition has become increasingly unclear. A recent podcast by Rahul Jain, where he explored the issue of whether an annual salary of Rs 70 is ‘middle class’ in India, raised the discussion once again.

Responding to the question, CEO of Edelweiss Mutual Fund Radhika Gupta said that in theory, an income of Rs 70 lakh counters the middle-class notion.

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Radhika said that all of us are above middle class and explained that having a salary of 70 lakh does not define a middle-class individual. “What we now like to call middle class is almost cool,” she told Jain. She said, “The reality is – none of us are middle class. The technical definition of middle class cannot be Rs 70 lakh of income. Rs 70 lakh is upper class.”

The Edelweiss CEO claims that numerous professionals in metropolitan cities in India are of the opinion that earning in seven figures is an underpayment. The continuous pressure from social media, high rent and increased standard of living leads more to the conclusion that salary is sufficient. High earners continue to identify as “middle class” due to their upbringing which Radhika views as an identity crisis.

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The Edelweiss CEO said that while all of us have a middle-class background but today most of us are not middle class anymore. “All of us come from middle-class roots. We have middle-class psychosis, middle-class thinking, grandparents who were middle or lower middle class,” she said. “We hold that word very dear to us. But let’s be real, most of us are not middle class anymore,” Radhika said.

According to Radhika, the true middle-class earns between Rs 5–8 lakh annually and not Rs 70 lakh. She believes that it is “meaningless” to assign a single label to all 140 crore people in the country. She says around 10 crore people earn around Rs 10 lakh-Rs 12 lakh per year while more than 100 crore live under Rs 1.7 lakh.

Social media is making it harder to define what the middle class is. She said, “I spoke to a Gen Z kid. I asked why they’re resistant to 60–70 hour work weeks. He said, ‘We have to go to the gym, maintain fitness, take vacations—because we’re competing on social media.’”

According to Radhika, social media comparisons between users exacerbate money anxiety. “The conflict between saving and spending always existed. But today, it’s exaggerated,” she says.

The Edelweiss CEO says that Rs 70 lakh is a high income on paper. However, this amount of money “never feels like enough” in the minds of the general public.

The privately educated are “maintaining a vice-like grip” on the top jobs in Britain, a charity has said, and is calling for employers to be required to report on the economic backgrounds of their workforce.

The Sutton Trust has found the most influential people in the UK remain five times more likely to have gone to a private school than the general population in its report Elitist Britain, similar to what the social mobility charity found in 2019.

Of the FTSE 100 chief executives who were educated in the UK, only a third (34%) attended a state comprehensive school, which the Sutton Trust said has remained unchanged since 2019. In comparison, 37% of these chief executives attended private schools, and the rest went to grammar schools.

Sutton Trust chief executive Nick Harrison said: “It’s a disgrace that most of the top jobs in Britain are still dominated by those from privileged education backgrounds, representing a small fraction of the wider population. Little progress has been made in opening up positions of power, with those from private schools maintaining a vice-like grip on the most important roles.

“In 2025 you can still buy advantage, massively increasing your chance of getting into the most powerful roles in the country.

“This is grossly unfair, and a waste of talent on a huge scale. If we want a fairer country and a stronger economy, employers and policymakers must take responsibility for levelling the playing field, where privilege is no longer a passport to power.”

In the general UK population, around 7% attend private schools.

The Sutton Trust also said more than two thirds of FTSE 100 chairs were privately educated in 2025, in a 15 percentage point increase from 2019. Nearly half (45%) of chairs attended Oxbridge, and 41% went to both private school and Oxbridge.

Around a third of charity chief executives (34%) went to a private school, 62% of senior judges, 52% of the House of Lords, 50% of newspaper columnists, 45% of podcasters, 47% of political commentators, and 47% of permanent secretaries, the charity said. Among permanent secretaries, 66% are Oxbridge educated, up 10 percentage points since 2019.

This year, the Sutton Trust looked at the educational background of social media influencers and content creators for the first time, and found among this group, 18% had attended private school, and 68% went to a state comprehensive.

A poll by YouGov for the Sutton Trust of 1,492 business senior decision makers also found just 9% of employers said they ask whether employees were eligible for free school meals, and only 15% ask about the profession or class background of employees’ parents, similar levels to 2019.

The polling found there has been a slight increase in the proportion of companies saying they were using contextual recruitment, which considers applicants’ credentials in the context of their background. Up 2% on 2019, 17% of firms said they were using contextual recruitment practices.

The Sutton Trust is calling for the Government to require employers with more than 250 staff to report on the socio-economic background of their workforce, and encourage reporting of class pay gaps. The charity also said employers should look at educational achievements in the context of disadvantage.

Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, said: “This polling suggests that most employers aren’t building a talent pipeline of young people from less advantaged backgrounds.

“And while there have been efforts to make business more inclusive, work on social mobility is patchy, and too often, social class is not included in the diversity conversation. Just one in 10 companies run specific schemes to support employees in terms of social mobility.

“This means they’re potentially limiting their talent pool. Making the most of talent, wherever it comes from, means employers can move beyond a narrow cohort of candidates from the most advantaged backgrounds. This can be a win-win for employers, society and the economy.”

A record-breaking £150bn package of US investment into the UK has been announced during US President Donald Trump’s State Visit.

The UK government is calling this the largest commercial deal of its kind and expects it to create more than 7600 “high-quality jobs” across the country.

A large majority of the money will come from Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, which has unveiled plans for a £90bn investment in the UK over the next decade.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the investments “are a testament to Britain’s economic strength and a bold signal that our country is open, ambitious, and ready to lead”.

“Jobs, growth and opportunity is what I promised for working people, and it’s exactly what this State Visit is delivering,” he added.

On Thursday, major UK and US investors will meet the Prime Minister and President Trump at Chequers to discuss how both countries can go further to deepen their economic ties and future collaborations.

Blackstone previously announced in June that it would invest £370bn in Europe over the next decade.

Earlier this week, Microsoft pledged to spend £22bn in the UK over the next four years, and Google pledged £5bn over the next two years to expand an existing data centre in Hertfordshire.

These investments will also help act as a powerful counterweight to the exodus of investment seen in the pharmaceutical sector.

However, the investments announced by Google and Microsoft are less than 4% of their annual spend, and the 7,600 jobs it is hoped to be created is a small number compared to the 160,000 payroll jobs lost since last year.

Blackstone’s large investment is in addition to the £10bn it previously announced for data centre development in the UK.

Real estate investment trust Prologis is also set to invest £3.9bn into the UK’s life sciences and advanced manufacturing.

Palantir will invest up to £1.5bn in UK defence innovation and plans to create up to 350 new jobs.

American tech company Amentum plans to create more than 3,000 jobs and expand its UK workforce by over 50%.

Boeing has said it will convert two 737 aircraft in Birmingham for the US Air Force, which would be the first USAF aircraft built in the UK for over 50 years, and could create 150 high-skilled jobs.

US Engineering firm, STAX, has also committed up to £38m to expand its UK operations.

The 7,600 total jobs promised are intended to be in all areas of the UK.

This is set to include 1,000 new jobs in Belfast and 6,000 more roles from Glasgow to Warrington, the Midlands and the North-East.

Business and trade secretary Peter Kyle said the deal reflects growing confidence in the UK’s industrial strategy.

“These record-breaking investments will create thousands of high-quality jobs across the UK,” he said.

“It’s a clear sign that our Plan for Growth is delivering for working people.”

The government said it wants to give “real opportunities for working people”, including apprenticeships in clean energy and careers in biotech and AI.

This comes ahead of the signing of the Tech Prosperity Deal on Thursday, which is a major new deal to accelerate the building of new nuclear power in both the US and the UK.