More billionaires, please

You know the world is becoming a nicer place when the number of billionaires starts to rise That was the first pleasant thought that occurred to me when I read a recent report about the Hurun Global Rich List 2024 I had no idea this list existed presumably because I am nowhere close to being a millionaire but I was happy for the billionaires in question and the validity granted to them by the list I imagined the smiles on their faces and congratulatory highfives I imagined them forwarding copies of the report to fellow billionaires on WhatsAppThis is speculative of course because I have no idea how billionaires spend their time I know some of them engage in pushing conspiracy theories and others use their money to prop up politicians whom they can then lean on for easy access to public property Luckily this sort of thing would never happen in India because we all know our politicians are not for saleApparently Bombay now ranks third after New York and London in terms of billionaires It occupies a spot last taken by Beijing which will probably upset the few Chinese people who have access to unbiased news reports It surprised me that the government of Maharashtra didnrsquot celebrate this with a public holiday or at the very least a poorly made statue at a crowded intersection It also surprised me that there was no congratulatory tweet from the Prime Minister whose social media team is usually so prompt about addressing anything and everything that happens anywhere outside the state of Manipur For the Prime Ministerrsquos office to not take credit for this development was unusualI hope this absence of celebratory spirit is addressed in the weeks and months to come as more billionaires start to emerge from our tarpaulincovered streets It deserves applause because of the potential for change it offers the rest of us I say this armed with the historical knowledge of how our world has always improved when the rich have become richer Everyone knows that cities with more billionaires become nicer and more liveable very quickly so it isnrsquot unreasonable for me to assume that the face of Bombay is set to change any day now After all why would any billionaire want to live in a city that doesnrsquot function They are probably huddled in a stadiumsized living room somewhere even as you read this working on a plan to make sure Bombayrsquos new bridges meet where theyrsquore supposed toAccording to the list the world is now home to 3279 billionaires with 167 of them added in the previous year alone The United States added 109 billionaires apparently and although China was still the worldrsquos leader with 814 billionaires India came in third with 271 after an addition of 84 individuals If we continue at this pace I have no doubt that America and China will soon be left behind in the dust of our advanced stage of economic development Will we get to a point where every street in Bombay will house a billionaire the way they now house unlicensed pani puri stalls It could happenThe nicest thing about billionaires as we have been made aware of repeatedly is how their concern for the world around them inevitably leads to the improvement of society Billionaires in America for instance are already working on populating new planets with millionaires who can afford to fly there Some are engaged in the noble pursuit of improving our collective shopping experience and preventing annoying things like unions from getting in the way Still others are buying up islands and converting them into bomb shelters where they will undoubtedly invite the rest of us to reside in the event of a nuclear warIf therersquos one thing that confuses me however itrsquos another statistic related to taxation According to multiple sources 665 million individuals in India pay personal income tax which is 48 percent of the countryrsquos total population Of this tax paying populace 32 million individuals account for 76 percent of total personal income tax receipts Also taxation experts point out that tax compliance hasnrsquot changed much over the past few yearsThis isnrsquot an insinuation about wealthy Indians avoiding taxes nor is it a comment about black money which we all know barely exists after demonetisation Itrsquos just a thought that makes me wonder if the Hurun Global Rich List has accounted for all the billionaires who supposedly live amongst usWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper