Inflation

Inflation is up and so is the number of crorepatis in Orange City. From just a handful about ten years ago, the figure has now grown to 438. The rise is not only phenomenal but startling too.
And if the statistics is anything to go by, the city has outpaced other metros in terms of rise in number of billionaires. It stands sixth in terms of crorepatis in the country. Interestingly, Nagpur is being considered as the second-fastest developing city after Chandigarh.
Though the figure may look paltry when compared to Delhi’s 5,085 or Mumbai’s 4,439 crorepatis, the rise in these metros has been not as meteoric as is the case with Nagpur.
Who has not heard of the famous Crorepati Galli in the Civil Lines area? It houses over a dozen crorepatis, including the Sharmas of Baidyanath and Pendharkars of Vicco group. Now crorepatis are sprouting in other areas of the city too.
The billionaire figure shows how the city has been changing fast and is an emerging business destination. More importantly, the city has the highest growth rate of millionaires in India. In 2002, there were 10, 417 households with an annual in-come of over Rs 10 lakh in Nagpur as against 1,199 in 1996. This translates into a 770% growth in merely six years.
In comparison, the number of millionaires has only doubled in New Delhi in the same period. According to the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Mumbai (319%) and Delhi (274%) were the third and second slowest, respectively, in terms of growth of crorepatis among the ten major metros.
Pradip Ganguly, a city planner and divisional engineer of Nagpur Improvement Trust says, “The city is very peaceful, where extortion, kidnapping and threat from mafia are rare. It also enjoys a good location, infrastructure and quality life, better healthcare and good education, drawing several businessmen from Orissa and neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh to set up their businessess.”
‘Devpt changingcrorepati demographics’
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NAGPUR: The setting up of the international airport, and the planned cargo hub and Boeing unit at Nagpur have changed the demographic of the city dramatically. Also, the city has grown two-fold in the last five years, says Pravin Ganguly, city planner and divisional engineer of Nagpur Improvement Trust.
This has led to tremendous hike in the real estate in the city and the neighbouring areas too. Besides its logistical importance, the city provides good quality life, better infrastructure, uninterrupted water supply, wide roads, better educational scope and good health care.
N Kumar of N Kumar Group, one of the crorepaties, agrees that the city is developing very fast. However, according to him, the crorepatis have been increasing because of rise in prices of properties in the city. “A property worth around Rs 10 lakh in Nagpur a few years ago is at least a crore of rupees now,” said Kumar.
One crorepati, who shifted from Raipur a few years ago, feels that Nagpur is the future city of central India.
“Facilities apart, the city has an advantage of providing skilled and technical personnel which industrialists and businessmen often do not get in other parts in neighbouring states,” he added. “Despite all these advantages, successive state governments have ignored the city.”