Mumbai: Currently, Mumbai’s 603 square kilometres have more billionaires than Beijing’s more than 16000 square kilometres. Mumbai has become the first billionaire capital of Asia, surpassing the Chinese Megalopolis.
Hurun Research’s 2024 Global Rich List revealed that China has 814 billionaires compared to India’s 271, and Mumbai has 92 billionaires to Beijing’s 91.
Mumbai is currently the third-richest city in the world, behind New York, which reclaimed the top spot after seven years, with 119 billionaires, and London, with 97. The maximum city’s 26 new millionaires in a single year have allowed it to surpass China’s political and cultural capital. At the same time, Beijing saw a net removal of eighteen former billionaires from the list.
Beijing now has $265 billion in total billionaire wealth, down 28 per cent from the previous year, while Mumbai now has $445 billion, a 47 per cent rise from last year. Energy and pharmaceuticals are two of Mumbai’s wealthiest industries, where billionaires like Mukesh Ambani are seeing notable returns. In percentage terms, Mumbai’s largest wealth gainer was real estate tycoon Mangal Prabhat Lodha and his family (116 per cent).
Indian billionaires have slightly fallen in the world position on the global rich list. With a significant rise in wealth mostly attributable to Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani holds steady at number ten. In a similar vein, Gautam Adani rose eight places to the 15th rank globally thanks to his incredible fortune growth.
Shiv Nader and his family at HCL had a significant rise in wealth and a move up 16 spots to the 34th position in the world ranking. On the other hand, Cyrus S. Poonawalla of Serum Institute saw a slight drop, falling 9 spots to 55 and having $82 billion in total wealth. Kumar Managalam Birla (ranked 100TH) and Dilip Shanghvi (ranked 61st) of Sun Pharmaceuticals are two more individuals who contribute to India’s billionaire dynamics. Radhakishan Damani moved up eight spots to number one thanks to his gradual but constant wealth rise, which was powered by DMart’s success.
