Wealth in hands of the few richest in India: Report

BANGALORE: India has one of the worst records in the trickle-down of wealth. As of last year, for every one billionaire in India there were just 26 ultra high net worth individuals (UHNIs), those whose net assets are over $30 million, excluding their primary residence.

In Japan, for every billionaire there were 609 UHNIs. Among comparable emerging markets, Brazil has 129 millionaires for every billionaire while for South Africa the number stands at 119. Globally, for every one billionaire there are 100 UHNIs.

This data from The Wealth Report of 2014 by global real estate consultants Knight Frank shows that wealth in India is getting concentrated among a handful of the country's richest.

"Wealth is getting skewed towards billionaires who, in turn, aren't able to give birth to more millionaires. This clearly indicates that while economic growth has been there, from an equity standpoint, the disparity is increasing," said Samantak Das, chief economist and director of research and advisory services in Knight Frank India.

China and Malaysia are the two other countries comparable to India where the ratio of billionaires to millionaires is 1:44 and 1:37, respectively.

The report estimates that in the last decade (2003 to 2013) the number billionaires in India grew from 23 to 60, a jump of 161%, and the number of UHNIs grew from 598 to 1,576, up 164%. Mumbai accounts for close to 37% of this wealth, while Delhi accounts for 9%.

The growth of this Richie Rich is attributed to the economic growth of over 8% that India witnessed through much of the last decade. "Even though 2008-2009 was a bad phase, it didn't really erode much of their wealth," said Das.

Knight Frank estimates that the billionaire to UHNI ratio will further skew to 1:22 over the next decade, as the wealth of Indian billionaires will increase significantly.

By 2023, India will have the fourth largest concentration of billionaires in the world, says the study, behind the United States, China, and Russia. Last year, the country had the sixth largest pool of billionaires.

On the other hand, in 2023, India would rank 19 in the world on the UHNI count, the same as last year.