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.
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.
Only 3% of Indian billionaires are female, the joint lowest of any focus country.