India’s rich shun alcohol, favour UPI payments, reveals survey

A survey of India’s wealthy reveals that over a third abstain from alcohol, whiskey remains popular, and UPI is the top payment method. Mumbai leads in millionaire households, followed by New Delhi and Bengaluru, reflecting concentrated wealth in major States

Mumbai: Over a third of the Indian rich prefer not to drink alcohol, a survey released on Thursday said.

The survey of 150 Indians having over Rs 8.5 crore of net worth individually had 34 per cent of respondents stating that they do not drink alcohol at all.

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Whiskey came close second with 32 per cent of the respondents preferring it, followed by red wine at 11 per cent and champagne at 9 per cent.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has emerged as the favourite mode of payments for the rich people in India, trumping cash and cards by a wide margin, as per the Mercedes-Benz Hurun India Luxury Consumer Survey 2025.

It said 35 per cent of the respondents stated UPI was their preferred mode, followed by cash at 18 per cent, RTGS/NEFT transfers at 16 per cent, and cards at 14 per cent.

The concurrently launched Mercedes-Benz Hurun India Wealth Report 2025 said 0.31 per cent of Indian households or 8.71 lakh families have a net worth of over Rs 8.5 crore or USD 1 million.

Mumbai is the ‘Millionaire Capital’ with 1.42 lakh of the millionaire households, followed by New Delhi at 68,200 and Bengaluru 31,600, it said.

Among the states, Maharashtra leads with 1,78,600 millionaire households, reflecting concentrated wealth in finance and industry.