Mounting evidences are being gathered suggesting that income and wealth
distribution in various countries or societies follow a robust pattern, close
to the Gibbs distribution of energy in an ideal gas in equilibrium, but also
deviating significantly for high income groups. Application of physics models
seem to provide illuminating ideas and understanding, complimenting the
observations.Comment: 7 pages, 2 eps figs, 2 boxes with text and 2 eps figs; Popular review
To appear in Current Science; typos in refs and text correcte
