NEW DELHI (TIP): Indian billionaires, the sixth largest group in the rich world, have thrown up an interesting trend found nowhere else in the world — holding on to one’s roots. Despite popular notions of billionaires being jet-setting, cosmopolitan individuals, most Indian billionaires remain where they were raised. The World Billionaire Census 2013 released on Wednesday shows that 95% of Indian billionaires who currently have their primary business in India, also grew up there. The trend globally is very different. Around 23% or just 1 in 4 billionaires globally made their home city the city of their primary business. Only 39% of all billionaires globally have the same home state as the state of their primary business Billionaire hotspots such as Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong have emerged as favoured destinations for the ultra-rich. However, only 36, 34, and 25% of their billionaire populations respectively, grew up in these countries. Another significant finding is that not all these Indian billionaires have college degrees, let alone attending Ivy League for a degree in business management. Three of every 10 billionaires in India don’t even have a college degree.
5.5% dip in India’s billionaire population
India’s billionaire contingent (103- strong) is narrowly behind Russia (108). However India’s billionaire population has decreased by 5.5% and the total billionaire wealth has fallen by $10 billion since last year. Mumbai is among the top 5 billionaire cities in the world and the only Indian entry in the top 10 list and New York remains the business city of choice for the world’s billionaires. Asia takes eight out of the top 20 spots for billionaire cities, the most for any region in the world. Moscow accounts for more than two thirds of Russia’s billionaires. The total number of billionaires who are based in the top 20 cities is 661, representing 30% of the world’s billionaires. India is one of the few countries where finance, banking and investments are not the most significant industries. Instead, industrial conglomerates and pharmaceuticals are the first and second most significant industries for Indian billionaires. Only 3% of Indian billionaires are female, the joint lowest of any focus country. The majority of Indian billionaires are college-educated with 72% possessing at least a bachelor’s degree (Switzerland and the US are the only other two focus countries that have a higher proportion of universityeducated billionaires). The Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2013 showed that Asia is where the largest number of newly-minted billionaires is based — since July 2012, 18 new billionaires came up in Asia with a total wealth of $136 billion. Asia was followed by North America (11).
Five of the top 10 countries with the highest percentage of self-made billionaires are from Asia. Every region increased in wealth terms, with Asia the fastest growing at 12.9%. The global billionaire population reached a record 2,170 individuals in 2013 and total billionaire wealth in Asia surged nearly 13% making it the fastestgrowing region. At current growth rates, the census, the first-ever comprehensive global study on this ultra-wealth tier, forecasts that Asia will catch up with North America in five years. Asia also saw the highest percentage rise in billionaire population (3.7% from 2012) and total wealth (13%) in 2013, suggesting that it is driving the tectonic shifts in wealth globally. The report also shows that 810 individuals became billionaires since the 2009 global financial crisis. The billionaire population’s combined net worth more than doubled from $3.1 trillion in 2009 to $6.5 trillion in 2013 — enough to fund the United States’s budget deficit until 2024, and greater than the GDP of every country except the US and China. Wealth-X forecasts that the global billionaire population will increase by 1,700 individuals to nearly 3,900 by the year 2020. Europe is home to the most billionaires (766 individuals). However, North America has the most billionaire wealth ($2,158 billion). Around 60% of billionaires are selfmade, while 40% inherited their wealth or grew their fortunes from inheritance. Only 17% of female billionaires are selfmade, while 71% gained their fortunes through inheritance.
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