Mumbai overtakes Beijing to become the ‘Billionaire Capital’ of Asia

India’s Financial Capital Mumbai, which has many names and tags attached to its existence, has another distinction bestowed upon it. Maharashtra’s capital city has now become the ‘Billionaire Capital’ of the largest and most populous continent in the world, Asia, according to Hurun Research Institute’s global rich list.

A clear morning on the Marine Drive, Mumbai. Photo courtesy: Unsplash
Marine Drive in Mumbai. Photo courtesy: Unsplash

In the process, the city went past the China’s economic colossuses of Shanghai and its capital, Beijing.

Mumbai currently is home to 92 billionaires, one more than Beijing’s 91.

The island city’s pack of rich is led by Asia’s richest person and head of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani. Ambani, like the city of Mumbai, returned to the position of the richest on the continent, after shadowing China’s Zhong Shanshan.

Nevertheless, China continues to house sizeable chunk of world billionaires with 814 of the super-rich living there.

Beijing, the capital of China. Photo courtesy: Unsplash
Beijing has 91 billionaires, one less than Mumbai. Photo courtesy: Unsplash

The list of the cities with most number of ultra-wealthy is headed by the country with the most number of billionaires, the USA. The ‘Big Apple’, New York, tops the list with 119, it is followed by the British capital, London with 97.

India has another entrant in the literal pool of wealth amongst cities, with the national capital New Delhi positioning itself on the sixth rung on the list of cities in Asia, behind Mumbai.

Mukesh Ambani is the richest man in Asia. Photo courtesy: www.ril.com
Mukesh Ambani, the the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, is the richest man in Asia. Photo courtesy: www.ril.com

Coming back to individual billionaires, Mukesh Ambani who leads the pack, is understandably on the list of the Richie riches across the globe, occupying the 11th position, with USD 111 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The population of the city of Mumbai stands around 21 million or 2 crore. With a median income of around INR 20,000 (USD 239) a month or around INR 2,40,000 (USD 2,879) per annum, these astronomical number of billions only affect the one who have it, as the income gap between the richest and the poorest in the country only scales further.

Top 10 cities with the maximum billionaires

New York- 119

London- 97

Mumbai- 92

Beijing- 91

Shanghai- 87

Shenzhen- 84

Hong Kong- 65

Moscow- 59

New Delhi- 57

San Francisco- 52

(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)