A new billionaire per month in India: Study

New Delhi: India has seen a new billionaire almost every month since 2010 and majority of them are self-made, according to a report by UK based wealth consulting firm Ahmadoff & Company.

It said that the increase in billionaires is due to massive local economy and globalised Indian enterprises. “We have always imagined Indian private capital is in hands of ‘old wealth’ rather than self-made entrepreneurs, however our research explains that self-made Indians take care of 65 per cent of wealth of billionaires and it has been stabilised at this ratio since 2010,” said the report released early this month.

The Forbes list had 101 Indian billionaires among them at its record number historically which added twenty two new names in the last two years.

The report said that steady high growth rates of the economy created demand to new services and goods, specifically from pharmaceuticals, healthcare and construction industries.

The report noted that reducing poverty introduces opportunities for entrepreneurs who both understands basic needs of society deeply and is able to execute business operations in given economic situation.

“For example,  healthcare and pharmaceutical industry has sent 10 business founders to the Forbes’ billionaires list in the last seven years more than any industry in India followed by retail industry which made 7 billionaires during that period,” it said.

While few people even among billionaire control a major chunk of wealth, it is coming down year after year due to fast growth of almost all entrepreneur-led industries in Indian economy.

“Enough competition for billions of dollars became intense during the last few years, average wealth level of the richest five men decreased to $16.5 billion this year from $20.3 billion of 2010 though entry ticket was same in these years. It means about $20 billion of wealth from only this group have been redistributed to other billionaires or brought 20 billionaires to the Forbes list,” said the report.

The total wealth of the richest fifty billionaires to Indian GDP decreased to 11.7 per cent from 13.4 per cent during 2010-17.

Interestingly marriage and family affairs play important role and only 2 per cent of billionaires have got married second time, in other cases they keep long and calm life with their family.  “Average number of children in rich families is 2.3 according our research, smaller families with sons and daughters are billionaires’ existing major family structure in India,” said the report.