For India’s Richest, the Past Year Never Happened

Forbes Asia is out with its latest list of India’s richest tycoons and the news is…good! At least good for capitalists, big dreamers and anyone dying for a glimmer of positive economic news, however quixotic.

Every year Forbes Asia painstakingly counts up the fortunes of the 40 wealthiest citizens in nearly every Asian country. A tough task that always sheds an interesting perspective on the different economic forces prevailing across the region at a given time. Needless to say, the past 18 months of lists has demonstrated that the recession’s spared no one person, industry or nation.

But the latest news out of India shows that the rebound may be coming as fast and furious as the decline. Nearly every single entrant among the  Top 40 is richer than one year ago, one exception being Dubai-based retailing magnate Micky Jagtiani, whose region is looking a little less resilient. Buoyed by the Bombay Stock Exchange’s good fortune (up two-thirds in the past year) the top 40 as a group nearly clawed back the losses they suffered from 2007 to 2008.

When the list is expanded to include India’s 100 Richest, the numbers are even more impressive- much more so, interestingly, than the figures out of China:

The combined fortune of India’s 100 richest is $276 billion, almost one-fourth the country’s GDP. That is well below the total worth of $775 billion for the 100 richest Americans, but well ahead of the equivalent sum for China’s top 100. Although China has more billionaires–79 vs. India’s 52–India’s wealthiest are worth over $100 billion more than the $170 billion total net worth of their Chinese counterparts.

Via India’s 100 Richest – Forbes.com.

Considering China’s significant size advantage- it’s GDP is roughly 3.5 times the size of India’s and its population about 15% larger- India’s edge in wealth creation might be surprising. Given the south Asian nation’s reputation for corruption and abject poverty, it’s easy to forget that warts and all, India is a democracy.

One telling discrepancy between the two lists: concentration of wealth:

India’s wealthiest person, once again Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani, has a fortune of $32 billion, more than five times the $5.8 billion net worth of BYD’s Wang Chuanfu, China’s richest citizen at the time we published our China 400 rankings earlier this month.

While many of the entrants on the China 100 list are “merely” worth nine or ten figures, the top seven Indian moguls are worth over $10 billion. Ambani’s $8 billion (sales) Reliance Industries, a sprawling private conglomerate with tentacles in energy, technology, retail and logistics could not exist, let alone thrive, in Communist China. Wang Chuanfu’s BYD is a successful, though highly-specialized, manufacturer of cell phone batteries. When Forbes’ China list was published earlier this month, BYD’s stock was on a tear fueled by the recent stake bought up by that Bono of billionaires, Warren Buffett.