India’s business tycoons have been urged not to live too ostentatiously so as to avoid antagonising a public unhappy about sharply rising income inequality and unable to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate wealth.

Professor C.K. Prahalad, the well-known corporate strategist from the University of Michigan, warned executives at the World Economic Forum in New Delhi that they would “pay a very heavy price” for failing to pay attention to worsening levels of income inequality.