So where do Indias billionaires get their wealth?

October 03, 2012

Out of India's 46 billionaires in 2012, 20 had drawn their primary source of wealth (at least originally) from sectors that can be classifed as "rent-thick' (real estate, construction, infrastructure or ports sectors, media, cement, and mining).

The remaining 26 billionaires had drawn their primary source of wealth from "other' sectors (IT/software, pharmaceuticals and biotech, finance, liquor and automotives, etc). Overall, 43% of the total number of billionaires, accounting for 60% of billionaire wealth in India, had their primary sources of wealth from rent-thick sectors, report Aditi Gandhi and Michael Walton, for the Economic and Political Weekly, here