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number of Indians with a personal net worth of over
US 1 million in real terms (Rs. 41 million) crossed
the 100,000 mark for the first time in 2006. According
to the World Wealth Report released on Thursday by Merrill
Lynch and Capgemini, the number increased from 83,000
in 2005 to 100,015 in 2006.
The amount does not include the value
of one primary residence or private collections of objects
such as art, antiques or coins. It is based on the declared
assets and the actual number of the wealthy may be much
higher due to a large number of unaccounted assets existing
in the system due to parallel economy.
The year-on-year increase of 20.5% is
closely behind Singapore at 21.2%. The comparable growth
in China has been at 7.8%, where the number of such
wealthy people is 345,000. This is despite the fact
that the Chinese economy grew at 10.7% against India's
9.4%.
The combined wealth of these super-rich
Indians is $ 100 billion, a third of which is enough
to wipe out India's $ 33-billion fiscal deficit.
India's economic growth and stock market
returns, along with the booming real estate in 2006
created thousands of new dollar millionaires, referred
generally as high net-worth individuals (HNWI).
USA, UK Australia, Brazil, Canada, China,
Germany, Russia, US are the other countries which also
have more than 100,000 people with at least $1 million
in net assets. Capgemini and Merrill Lynch define a
millionaire as someone with $1 million-plus in financial
assets such as cash, equities, bonds or mutual funds.
The number is also indicative of the capacity
of individuals to spend on premium wines and the investment
grade wines, as also other luxury goods. This is the
segment that drinks premium wines. With the growing
wine education and exposure to wine as a better and
healthy lifestyle , the growth in this sector will go
north. During the past couple of years, there has been
a marked shift in the consumption of quality wines in
India and the number is constantly on the increase,
with the importers privately admitting to a spectacular
growth in this sector.
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