Mumbai: Amidst the heightened concerns on inequality that has been on a steady climb across the globe in general and particularly in India, a study has said the number of the rich has grown at a faster clip than their collective networth in the country in 2017.
The number of ultra-high networth households in the country, which represents those with a networth of over Rs 25 crore or more, has grown 12 per cent to over 1.60 lakh in 2017, while their collective networth grew only 5 per cent at Rs 153 trillion, it said.
Findings of the study, commissioned by Kotak Wealth Management, come even as there are increased concerns on rising inequality, especially after a 2017 paper by economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel, and also a report by the non-profit Oxfam.
While the paper by the French economists argued that the post-1991 reforms have seen a rise in inequality, the Oxfam report said in 2017, top 1 per cent of the population cornered as much as 73 per cent of the wealth generated.
Asked about the divergence, Kotak’s Wealth Management CEO Jaideep Hansraj said their study has not gone into the inequality aspect. “We’ve stuck to what we think where these set of ultra high networth households would grow to, will spend their monies and where are they growing, rather than us getting into those issues (of inequality),” he said on Tuesday.
The study sees over the next five years, the number of such households will double to 3.30 lakh and their networth will grow to Rs 352 trillion.
He claimed that despite negative events like the note-ban which has pulled down GDP growth, one of the most important factors determining wealth for the category, its estimates have come out true in the last seven years since it has been coming out with the such reports.
