This changed rapidly from the beginning of the 2000s, as wealth flowed first to an educated, globally connected elite. A newly prosperous class emerged in major cities, giving birth to “islands of California in a sea of sub-Saharan Africa,” in the words of economists Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen.17 The wealth accumulated at the very top was most eye-catching of all. In 2008, as the scale of India’s new billionaire fortunes became clear, economist Raghuram Rajan, the future head of India’s central bank, asked: “If Russia is an oligarchy, how long can we resist calling India one?”18
