Indian billionaires’ wealth nearly triples to $905 billion in 10 years: report

India has emerged as a hotspot for wealth creation in the Asia-Pacific region, with the combined net worth of its billionaires nearly tripling in the 10 years to $905.6 billion by 2024. India now ranks third globally in total billionaire wealth, behind the United States. And China, published a UBS report.

Rising rapidly from $637.1 billion in 2023, this remarkable 42% growth rate in the wealth of Indian billionaires exceeds the global average and reflects India’s rapid economic transformation, driven by family-led businesses and structural reforms led by the country’s government.

Over the past decade, the number of billionaires in India has grown to 185—a 123% increase, highlighting the growing entrepreneurial spirit in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, edtech and fintech, the UBS report noted.

UBS highlights that family-owned enterprises are central to the rapid growth in the wealth of Indian billionaires. India boasts the largest number of publicly listed family-owned businesses, contributing a significant share to this growing wealth.

“As India enters the top league of economies worldwide, it also has the highest number of publicly listed family-owned businesses, many of which span multiple generations,” UBS said.

These family-owned businesses have benefited from strong equity market performance – the NSE Nifty 500 index has more than doubled in USD terms over the past 10 years, reflecting the surge in wealth among billionaire families.

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As India continues to urbanize and digitize, UBS expects the trend of rising wealth among Indian billionaires to continue. Growing manufacturing capacity and preparations for a green energy transition are likely to spur further wealth accumulation in India, potentially positioning the country’s billionaires to follow the path set by their Chinese counterparts before 2020.

“It may well be that India’s billionaire entrepreneurs multiply over the next 10 years as China did in the years leading up to 2020,” UBS said.

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