India’s financial hub Mumbai overtook Beijing as Asia’s billionaire capital for the first time, according to a global rich list published on Monday by Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute.
Mumbai’s 92 billionaires puts it behind New York which has 119 and London with 97.
Led by business leaders including Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries and Gautam Adani of Adani Group, and aided by a robust economy that grew by 7.5% in 2023, India as a whole added 94 people to its list of 271 billionaires, the report showed. That was India’s highest number since 2013.
“Confidence in the [Indian] economy grew to record levels,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, the institute’s chairman and chief researcher of the report.
While China remained top of the list with 814 billionaires, its number of ultra-rich has shrunk by 155 from 2022 as the country’s real estate and renewable energy sectors struggled to grow, and its stock markets remained weak. The U.S. closed in on China in 2023, adding 109 to take second place with a total of 800 billionaires.
Among India’s new faces on the list are Rohiqa Cyrus Mistry who leads the financial company Sterling Investments, and Ina Ashwin Dani of paint manufacturer Asian Paints. Mistry is the wife of the late Cyrus Mistry, the estranged former chairman of Tata Group.
Ambani was the wealthiest person in India, with $115 billion in assets, followed by Adani with $86 billion.
In China, Zhong Shanshan of Nongfu Spring, a bottled water producer, topped the rich list for the fourth straight year with assets of $63 billion. But it was Colin Huang, the founder of e-commerce operator Pinduoduo that stole the limelight after overtaking Pony Ma of Tencent Holdings to take second place.
Source: Nikkei Asia
