According to the latest World Wealth Report by Capgemini, the number of High Net Worth Individuals or millionaires (in US Dollars) in India grew to 263,000 people in 2017. India registered the largest percentage growth in the number of High Net Worth Individuals at 20%. Capgemini is a French multinational and business consulting corporation. It is one of the world's largest IT consulting, outsourcing and professional services companies.
In absolute numbers, India is 11th on the list, while Australia is at 9th position with 278,000 HNIs. The list is topped by the US with over five million high net worth individuals, followed by Japan, Germany, and China.
The total wealth of HNIs for the first time surpassed 70 trillion dollars.
Managing Partner at Asset Managers in India, Mr Surya Bhatia told SBS Hindi,
"If you look at total income, income capacity or income in hand there has been an increment in middle-class income. After demonitisation there was an impact for a few months, for some period. There was a momentum which was being built but due to demonitisation there was a bit of a difference, there was an interruption in the momentum that was being built in the country. But then the rate of recovery from that interruption was equally fast and the economy came into a continuity mode.
"If you look at the growth, the HNI segment is moving into the super HNI segment, middle class in moving into the HNI segment and low to mid segment is further moving into the mid-segment, so there is a lot of improvement"
"But there is still a lot of scope," he says, "if you look at absolute terms you see an improvement but if you talk about percentage terms, compared to other countries at the global level, it's still very weak"
"It is not necessary that just because there is an increase in HNIs everyone’s situation is improving. If you look at the population of India this number is nothing…we still have a lot of income inequality in India. Now due to social media, this inequality is more apparent and India being a young and aspirational country, in one way, this is pushing people to reach the next level. So we can hope that in the coming decade there will be a lot of improvement and the number of millionaires will increase by leaps and bounds."
Mr Bhatia says that these numbers do show that the situation is getting better,
"The numbers do show that there is an improvement in the economic growth, and the growth of companies and individuals has also reached a good level. The flow of FIs (Foreign Investors) and FDI’s (Foreign Direct Investors), which you can also take as a barometer, every year you see an improvement in it. It shows that even foreign investors see an opportunity in India for growth in their capital and growth in their assets."
However he adds,
"While there is 20% growth the base itself is very low, so it's not something that one should be very happy about because there is huge scope for improvement and this 20% is actually quite less. It should grow at the level of 50 to 70% which it is not growing currently, but one can hope that in the coming years one will see this growth."
India's growing inequality
However, a study by aid agency, Oxfam, released on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos this year pointed to growing inequality in India.
It found that the richest one per cent in India had 73 per cent of the wealth generated last year - compared to a year ago where the top 1 per cent owned 58 per cent.
It also states that 57 billionaires have the same amount of wealth as the bottom 70 per cent of India's population
