India has the fastest growing population of millionaires in the world: Report

• According to Capgemini, the number of dollar millionaires in India grew by 20% to 263,000 people in 2017.
  
• What’s more, the combined wealth of these individuals grew by 21% to a little over $1 trillion.
  
• Meanwhile, the global growth in millionaires was 11% and their total wealth rose by a similar percentage, surpassing the $70 trillion mark.

India’s growth story, since liberalisation in 1991, has been well-documented. A visible indicator of this growth has been the dramatic increase in the wealth of the country’s elites and business owners, who were, to put it simply, at the right place at the right time when markets opened. Concurrently, a lot of people have been left out of this growth story.

A recent report by Capgemini, a technology consultancy, found that India had the highest growth in the number of high-net-worth-individuals (HNWI) - or individuals having investable assets of at least $1 million excluding primary residences - last year.

According to “World Wealth Report”, the number of millionaires (in dollar terms) in India grew by 20% to 263,000 people in 2017 - a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of India’s total population. This growth was aided by a boom in the domestic stock-markets.

What’s more, the combined wealth of these individuals grew by 21% to a little over $1 trillion. If they wanted to, they could cancel out all of India’s public debt.

Meanwhile, the global growth in millionaires was 11% while their total wealth rose by a similar percentage, surpassing the $70 trillion mark. India’s overall ranking in the world in terms of the number of millionaires is 11. The list is led by the US, Japan, Germany and China.

Second-fastest in terms of billionaires

In terms of billionaires, India took second spot in the world in terms of new additions. According to Hurun, a Shanghai-based reporting group, it added 31 new billionaires in the 12 months to January 2018, compared with 210 for China.

As per the Hurun Global Rich List, India had 131 billionaires at the beginning of the year. And there’s no prizes for guessing who leads this list. With a wealth of $45 billion, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, jumped ten places to the 19th spot on the world’s rich list.

Ambani’s dominance indicates the direness of India’s income inequality problem. According to survey data published by Oxfam India this past January, the country’s richest 1% earned 73% of the wealth generated last year. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of India’s population saw their wealth increase by a meagre 1%.