Indian tycoons’ slice of pie shrinks

The slowdown that hurt the economy for the second time in three years took a toll on the fortunes of Indian billionaires too.

The slowdown that hurt the economy for the second time in three years took a toll on the fortunes of Indian billionaires too.

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The wealth of billionaires in India, which was 12.1% of the country’s GDP in 2011, fell to 9.9% by March 2012, an analysis — Where Do India’s Billionaires Get Their Wealth? — in the latest edition of the Economic and Political Weekly shows.

There are 46 billionaires in the country whose combined wealth is over $176 billion (Rs. 9.26 lakh crore) —relative to the stock market.

The growth of the fortune of billionaires was most impressive during PM Manmohan Singh’s first tenure — growing from 3.5% in 2005 to 22.2% of GDP in 2008.

The recovery, too, was quick from 6.8% during the 2009 downturn to 11.9% in 2010 and 12.1% in 2011.

“Infrastructure projects, mining and spectrum licence allocations are typically granted through invitation of bids by the government. Decisions have often been disputed on grounds of transgressions…,” the authors Aditi Gandhi and Michael Walton state.