ECONOMIC RISE, OWNERS' PRIDE

This year's roster of India's dollar billionaires is a reaffirmation that the growth story is not ephemeral but perpetual.

- V. Keshavdev

IT’S NOT WITHOUT REASON that the 18th century is referred to as the period of Scottish Enlightenment. It was during this era that prominent personalities Adam Smith (economics), David Hume (philosophy), Robert Burns (literature), and James Watt (engineering and science) made groundbreaking contributions in their respective fields. But, arguably, it’s Smith’s legacy in the field of economics that has been enduring. In his quiver of seminal works, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is an opus that still reverberates in modern economics, especially Smith’s free market theory. The core argument of The Wealth of Nations posits that when individuals act in self-interest, it, inadvertently, leads to collective societal gains. In this framework, the division of labour within an economy creates a network of interdependencies which, facilitated by market forces, contribute to overall stability and wealth creation.

Undeniably, Smith’s theory is underway in the most populous country one that aspires to be the world’s third-largest economy.

Savour this. The second edition of the Fortune India-Waterfield Advisors’ study of India’s richest — a definitive listing of the country’s dollar billionaires — shows that the elite club is now equivalent to 25.39% of India’s FY23 GDP of ₹273 lakh crore ($3.4 trillion). The collective wealth of India’s uber rich swelled from ₹66.35 lakh crore ($832 billion) in 2022 to ₹69.30 lakh crore ($843 billion) this year, even as the club of billionaires expanded from 142 to 157. India’s prosperity engine is not just running — it’s roaring.