World's wealthiest richer than before, Indians amongst top 12

A new report says the world's wealthiest are getting more prosperous, and numerous, by the day. According to the annual world wealth report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, the globe's richest have now recouped the losses suffered in the course of the 2008 banking crisis and they are richer than ever before.

The report also says that the numbers of the High Networth Individuals (HNIs) has risen, and now there are more of them – nearly 11 million – than before the global recession.

The rich are referred to as "High Networth Individuals" (HNIs) and defined as people who have more than $1m (Rs4.47 crore) of free cash.

According to the world wealth report, the wealth of HNIs around the world reached $42.7 trillion (Rs191,253,300 crore) in 2010, rising nearly 10% in a year and surpassing the peak of $40.7 trillion reached in 2007.

The surge in numbers of HNIs comes even as austerity budgets were implemented by a large number of governments in the developed world.

The report also measures a category of "ultra-high net worth individuals" – those with at least $30 million in assets. The number of individuals in this super-rich bracket climbed 10% to a total of 103,000, and the total value of their investments jumped by 11.5% to $15 trillion.