PARVATHI BENU CHENNAI

DATA FOCUS.

72% of India’s super rich derive wealth from the equity market

The sharp rally in equity markets since March 2020 appears to have helped the affluent
not just in India, but in other countries as well.

In the last three years, until May 2023, a whopping 84 per cent of them noted a growth
in their net wealth. This is according to Bloomberg’s Global Wealth Blueprint, which was
released recently.

The survey terms someone aged above 25 and has more than $150,000 of investable
assets as affluent. While the proportion of the rich who got richer was 84 per cent in
India, in China, this was 80 per cent. It was 74 per cent in the UAE.

The survey findings show that the most affluent people in India – 72 per cent – cite
equity and stock markets as key contributors to wealth. At the same time, a little less
than half of them — 47 per cent — cited inheritance as the key contributor to their
wealth.

An analysis of Hurun’s India Rich list over the years, too, shows that the affluent section
has done well since the Covid pandemic. The number of rich people in the country
increased 16 per cent in 2022, compared to 2019.

The IIFL Hurun India Rich List 2022 shows that at the end of FY22 there were 1,103
Indians with assets worth more than ₹1,000 crore. The number was just 953 in 2019. At
the time of the launch of the report, the cumulative wealth of the people featured in the
list “grew to ₹100-lakh crore – more than the combined GDP of Singapore, UAE, and
Saudi Arabia”.

India’s richie rich

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mukesh Ambani is the richest person in
the country as of September 11. Between September 11, 2019, and September 11,
2023, Ambani’s wealth almost doubled, growing from $47.3 billion to $92.4 billion.

Gautam Adani holds the second position with a wealth of $65.5 billion. His wealth was
just $8.52 billion in 2019. Shapoor Mistry, the Chairman of Shapoorji Pallonji Group,
holds the third position with a wealth of $31.5 billion.