The potential of National Family Health Survey wealth index to contribute to the discourse on poverty and inequality in India is presented. Between 2005–06 and 2015–16, there have been improvements in ownership and access to fairly basic household assets and amenities, yet, much needs to be accomplished in the provisioning of pucca houses, clean cooking fuel, improved toilet facilities as well as access to the digital world through computers and the internet. Inter-household inequalities in asset ownership have declined, but there are large intergroup inequalities with particularly disadvantaged asset ownership profiles for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Muslim households. Interstate inequalities in asset ownership, however, have increased. The increased concentration of asset poor is found in Bihar, whereas Punjab and Haryana experience increased share of richest households. Overall, based on robustness checks, the NFHS wealth index is an important proxy of socio-economic status and offers considerable scope for timely and systematic analysis of economic inequalities.
