India has 103 billionaires, Mumbai has 30

Mumbai, Nov 7: India has a higher number of billionaires than France, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Hong Kong and is home to the sixth largest group of super rich population in the world, says a report.

Also, the country's financial capital Mumbai with 30 billionaires, is among the top five 'billionaire cities' globally, which was topped by New York that is home to 96 billionaires.

Hong Kong, Moscow and London make the top five with 75, 74 and 67 billionaires respectively.

Notwithstanding the fact that the number of billionaires in India decreased between July 2012 and June 2013, India still enjoys a respectable sixth position in the top 10 league with 103 billionaires.

The list was topped by United States with 515 ultra-rich people, three times more than in China, which ranks second with 157 billionaires.

Germany, United Kingdom and Russia make the top five countries with a billionaire population of 148, 135 and 108 respectively.

According to the Wealth-X-UBS billionaire census report 2013, India's billionaire population has decreased by 5.5 per cent to 103 and the total billionaire wealth has fallen by USD 10 billion to USD 180 billion. However, the world's population of billionaires continues to grow.

Between July 2012 and June 2013, the number of billionaires increased by 0.5 per cent, with their total wealth rising by 5.3 per cent.

Globally, there are 2,170 billionaires as of 2013, with a combined net worth of USD 6.5 trillion, more than the GDP of every country except the United States and China.

The report further noted that industrial conglomerates and pharmaceuticals are the first and second most significant industries for Indian billionaires.

The majority of Indian billionaires are college-educated, with 72 per cent possessing at least a bachelor's degree (Switzerland and the US are the only other two countries that have a higher proportion of university-educated billionaires), the report said.

The average billionaire's net worth in India is USD 1.7 billion and nearly half of them (47 per cent) are self made.

The average age of a billionaire in India is 63 years and most of them are men. "Only 3 per cent of Indian billionaires are women, the joint lowest representation of any focus country featured in this report," it said.

Last month, the US business magazine Forbes said that India had a total of 65 billionaires, led by Mukesh Ambani, who, with a net worth of USD 21 billion, retained his title as India's wealthiest for sixth year in a
row.

PTI