INDIA:India has emerged as the world's second-fastest producer of millionaires - lagging marginally behind Singapore - due to its high economic growth, a robust stock market and rising property prices.
The recently-released annual World Wealth Report by global investment bankers Merrill Lynch and financial consultants Capgeimini revealed that in 2006 India had 100,015 millionaires, up 20.5 per cent from the 83,000 high net worth individuals (HNWIs) recorded in the previous year.
By contrast, the number of Singaporean millionaires increased by 21.2 per cent last year - a mere 0.7 per cent faster than the increase in India, according to the survey.
The report's definition of a millionaire is someone with more than $1 million in financial assets such as cash, equities, bonds or funds.
It does not include the value of an individual's primary residence or private art or antique collections.
The study put the collective worth of the ultra-rich Indians at well over $100 billion. Financial analysts pointed out that one-third of this amount would be enough to wipe out India's $33 billion fiscal deficit, rendering the domestic economy debt-free.
Economists concede that disparities in income during the past decade of market reforms have grown exponentially as India's output rose, spawning social tension.
This has been blamed for a worsening security situation, in which an increasing number of radical groups in the region have had the means to finance grenade attacks and other forms of terrorism.
"Singapore, India, Indonesia and Russia witnessed the highest growth in HNWIs" the report revealed.
It pointed out that the so-called "BRIC" nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - were playing an increasingly important role in the global economy.
The analysts attributed India's prosperity to its strong economic performance, which has been growing annually at over 9 per cent and has been boosted by foreign investment and significant growth in manufacturing and services.
The analysts noted that overseas or non-resident Indians, who tended to be global in outlook, knowledgeable about the operations of markets in the countries in which they were residing and well-informed on international affairs, were now playing a greater role in leading wealth-management institutions across the world.
The report estimated that the number of millionaires in the world increased last year by 8.3 per cent to around 9.5 million, with collective financial assets totalling more than $37.2 trillion.
The study contained a section on the money spent by millionaires on "investments of passion" and on expenditure on luxury goods.
Over a quarter of such investments were on private jets, sports teams, yachts and racehorses, with the remainder being spent on art, fine wine and jewellery.