Rise in ultra-rich numbers

Mrinal Chatterjee

Window Seat

Between 2023 and 2028, India will witness the highest growth for any country in the number of ultra-high net-worth individuals (UHNWIs), with a net worth of $30 million or more, according to the recently released Knight Frank’s flagship study, “The Wealth Report 2024”

The report predicts that the number of ultra-rich Indians will rise by 50.1 per cent to 19.908 in 2028 from 13,263 in 2023. India will be followed by China (47 per cent). Turkiye (42.9 per cent) and Malaysia (35 per cent).

Now consider this: according to the World Inequality Report 2022, India is among the most unequal countries in the world, with the top 10 per cent and top 1 percent of the population holding 57 per cent and 22 per cent of the total income respectively.

With the rise in ultra-rich number, the inequality will grow further. It is no rocket science to know that high levels of income inequality are linked to economic instability, financial crisis, debt and inflation. Inequalities of opportunity affect a person’s life expectancy and access to basic services such as healthcare, education, water, and sanitation. They can curtail a person's human rights, through discrimination, abuse and lack of access to justice.

Our society needs equality and equity for holistic development.

Who gives more?

Here is an interesting finding from “India Philanthropy Report 2024”:

India’s super –rich who boast businesses worth over Rs.1,000 crore tend to give less to charity than the rich with a net worth of Rs.5-1,000 crore. According to this by Bain & Company on trends in philanthropy, First-generation of wealth creators (called now-gen givers in the report) ranked highest among their peers, giving 0.19 percent of their wealth. They were followed by women philanthropists at 0.14 percent, professionals at 0.13 percent.

Among other findings about family philanthropy is that women give a larger share of their wealth than men.

Environment, climate and sustainability are emerging as areas that are demanding a higher share of philanthropic outlay. Half of the first-generation wealth creators who are less than 40 years of age are committed to climate action. CSR allocation towards environment and sustainability has also increased substantially.

However, giving as a percentage of wealth has remained stagnant below 1 per cent for years now, irrespective of the donor base of wealth-creators and philanthropists increasing year-on-year.

Self-publication

Self-publishing is when an author publishes his/her work without a traditional book publisher. This allows the author to retain control of all creative decisions, publishing costs, and royalty profits.

Many authors have sniggered at the idea of self-publication in several ways – from ‘why should a writer get involved in the nitty-gritty of publication and marketing’ to  ‘it’s beneath the status of a writer’.

But interestingly this method has been around for centuries, recently evolving into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Self-publishing has both advantages and disadvantages. On the advantage side- it empowers writers to take control of their book publishing dreams and sell their books just as they envisioned. For example, James Joyce self-published his seminal work Ulysses, considered to be one of the best novels of the world of all time.

Joyce self-published it, as publishers at that time did not understand his ‘stream-of-consciousness’ technique. Charles Dickens, dissatisfied with his payout, self-published A Christmas Carol. Marcel Proust started with self-publishing his first book Swann’s Way.

Stephen King, an author beloved by millions of readers worldwide, ventured into the realm of self-publishing back in 1960 with his short story collection People, Places and Things. King founded Triad and Gaslight Books, becoming, like Mark Twain, one of the authors with their own publishing company.

Among the contemporary well known Indian authors, who self-published are: Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey, 2015), Amish Tripathi (The Immortals of Meluha, 2010), Savi Sharma (Everyone has a Story, 2015), Devika Das (7 Vows of Marriage) and many others.

Self-publishing has become a huge industry now with several companies providing hand-holding service to the writers, who want to see their book published. The services include type setting, copy-editing, cover and illustration, printing, publishing with ISBN number, marketing, organizing promotional activities. There are companies like Notion Press, Evince Publication and Blue Roses, who do it quite professionally. Companies or enterprises like them are there in every publishing centre in every major language in India.

It has become easy to be a published author. But does it make you a writer?

Tailpiece: Building and maintenance

"Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”— Kurt Vonnegut