Here's a surprising piece of statistics: Kolkata has the third-highest number of crorepatis in the country, after Delhi and Mumbai, according to a recent survey by National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
According to the survey, Delhi and Mumbai continue to be the major centres of wealth in India, accounting for half of the roughly 20,000 crorepati households in India. Interestingly, Kolkata, which doesn't often feature near the top of such lists, has more crorepati households than Bangalore. The survey says there are 180 crorepati households for every million in Kolkata compared to 113 in Bangalore. The survey was conducted across 300,000 households across the country.
An interesting sidelight of this survey is that top wealth managers, like American Express, ASK and others, who had largely written of Kolkata, are now moving aggressively to set up shop in the city. DSP Merrill Lynch, which did so last year, already has 88 clients with total assets under management of Rs 600 crore. The minimum ticket size: Rs 2.5 crore. Amex is expected to set the bar higher-at Rs 3 crore, the same as ASK. And if Amex, ASK, DSP Merrill Lynch come forward, can HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Stanchart be far behind? They are also lining up crorepati "privilege clients" with ticket sizes varying between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore. Says a senior executive at HSBC: "Apart from businessmen, we have several professionals like doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, ex-NRIs and retired top executives making up the numbers in Kolkata. They come for hassle-free services like equity handling and portfolio management."
