❖ The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has recently published working paper on the share of religious minorities in 167 countries, including India.

❖ The paper strikingly claimed that for India, while the share in population of Muslims increased by 43.15% in this time period, the share in population of Hindus decreased by 7.82%. ❖ In 1950, Hindus’ share in population was 84.68%, coming down to 78.06% in 2015.

❖ Similarly, Muslims’ share in population had risen from 9.84% to 14.09%.

❖ The paper has concluded that Hindus’ share declined by 7.82%, Christians’ rose by 5.38%, Sikhs went up by 6.58%, and that of Parsis went down by 85%.

❖ The 2011 Census had counted 96.63 crore Hindus — 79.8% of the population and 17.22 crore Muslims — 14.2% of the population in the country at the time.