According to the latest tally of India’s richest persons by Forbes Magazine, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is home to 45 of the 100 most wealthy Indians, including Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India. In my book I noted how almost 40 percent of India’s personal income taxes are collected in and around Mumbai. These are some of the many indicators why Mumbai is by far the most important business city in India.
Delhi/New Delhi are home to another 21 of the richest Indians. Even though Forbes is now also published in India, its staff does not seem to understand that Delhi and New Delhi need to be grouped together (along with Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Ghaziabad) as the National Capital Region for a meaningful number. Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) The former capital of colonial India, the city that was once India’s richest in terms of culture, economy, manufacturing and more has a meager two residents among India’s rich: Marwari businessmen Ram Prasad Goenka and Benu Gopal Bangur. Both were born to wealth which began in the jute business but has now diversified to many other areas.
Bangalore, is home to nine of the super-wealthy including an incredible five from Infosys alone. All five are part of the original founding team of seven: NR Narayana Murthy (CEO for a long time and now Chief Mentor), “Kris” Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani (now divides his time in Mumbai as head India’s most ambitious IT project), K Dinesh and S.D Shibulal who lived in Boston for some time.
Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad each are home to 4-5 of the super wealthy. A few live overseas primarily in London, Dubai or Singapore. The list includes only Indian citizens so US-based billionaires such as Vinod Khosla are not on included.
