The world is witnessing a simultaneous extraordinary swell in the ranks of the mega-rich and the absolute poor. At a time when those living in extreme poverty have multiplied to more than a billion , the number of billionaires has increased to 587 from 476 a year ago.

According to a June 15 report issued by Merrill Lynch, the largest consultancy firm, there were 7.7 million millionaires in the world in 2003 - an increase of 7.5 per cent over 2002 figure. In contrast, the populations of 21 countries are hungrier today than in 1990 and in 14 countries more children are dying before the age of five.

The Merrill report also measured the wealth of the "ultra-rich," defined as those with over $30 million of liquid assets. They are some 70,000 worldwide. The millionaires owe their growing affluence, it is interesting to note, mostly to a rising stock market in 2003, and their decision, early in the year, to significantly increase their stock holdings.

On average, the high net worth individuals (a term used by the Merrill report) increased their investments in stocks to 35 per cent of their holdings in 2003 from 20 per cent in 2002. World stock indexes obliged them, with the Dow rising 22 per cent and the NASDAQ 45 per cent in the US, Germany's DAX up 30 per cent, and Japan's Nikkei up 25 per cent.

According to Merrill report, certain "emerging markets" shot up much higher. For instance, in India, the Mumbai stock exchange rose by 110 per cent in 2003 and in Brazil, market capitalization on Sao Paulo's exchange increased by 85 per cent.

The largest concentrations of wealth are, as expected, in North America and Europe. In the US and Canada, the millionaires number 2.5 million while in Europe they are 2.6 million. It is interesting to note that it is not the high GDP growth rates alone that are on the rise in China and India.

The two countries witnessed 12 per cent and 22 per cent increase in the number of millionaires in 2003. So China boasts of 236,000 millionaires, thanks to its embrace of free market economy. However, India is home to only 61,000.

The report predicts that millionaires, now controlling a wealth of $28.8 trillion, will have in their possession an incredible amount of $40.7 trillion by the year 2008.

The Forbes Magazine's report, issued in March this year, says that the combined wealth of the ultra-rich exceeds the GDPs of the world's 170 poor countries put together, and equals nearly 4 per cent of the annual production of the entire world.

Leading the billionaires, once again, is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at $46.6 billion. His wealth, having declined now, had touched $90 billion in 1999 before the dot.com bubble burst.

Number two on the list is investor Warren Buffett whose wealth is estimated at $42.9 billion. Next in order at $23 billion is the retired German supermarket magnate Karl Albrecht, followed at $21.5 billion by Saudi Arabia's crown prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud (who owns a $10 billion investment in Citi group).

Among cities, New York boasts the largest concentration of the mega-rich, with 31 billionaires residing in the city. The second largest concentration is in Moscow where eight new billionaires emerged last year, taking the total to 23, thanks to switchover to capitalism, imposed by the US, from communism which has also given birth to prosperity to a few and widespread poverty and crimes to others. Hong Kong has 16 billionaires and there are 11 in San Francisco. London trails with nine.

Nearly half of the world's billionaires live in the United States. They are 275 and their combined net worth is $909 billion. Germany is second, with 42 billionaires worth $158 billion, according to Forbes report.

A new and unusual face on the list of billionaires is author J.K. Rowling, whose five Harry Potter novels have sold 250 million copies and spawned two successful movies. It shows a combination of talent, luck and hard work can sometimes prove to be lucrative. Another such case is Oprah Winfrey, a TV entertainer.

Many names on the list appear almost every year, demonstrating the monopoly position of those who acquire great wealth. One such figure is New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, whose net worth of $4.9 billion makes him the world's 85th-richest person.

Another name of political importance is Thomas Frist, Jr. and family, worth $1.7 billion. His son William is the Republican majority leader of the US Senate. Besides the Saudi crown prince, three other oil sheikhs are high on the list - the president of the United Arab Emirates at $20 billion, the sultan of Brunei at $14.3 billion, and the crown prince of Dubai at $10 billion.

The other royal billionaire is Hans Adam II, the prince of Liechtenstein, worth $2.2 billion. Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister of Italy, is worth $10 billion (number 30 on the list), while Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister of Thailand, and his family are worth $1.4 billion.

At least 40 of the 100 members of US Senate are millionaires, Republicans being 22 and Democrats 18. John Kerry's wealth is estimated to be between 164 and 211 million dollars.

His wife Teresa Heinz Kerry is heiress to Heinz food company fortune. Others in the list are Herb Kohl ($111 million), John J. Rockefeller ($81.6 million) Jon Corzine ($71 million). The two Republicans in the top ten are Peter Fitzgerald ($26.1 million) and Bill Frist ($15.1 million).

Five of the nine US Supreme Court judges are millionaires but the remaining four are not far behind. These judges are appointed to life-time positions by the US president. On top of the list are Ruth Bader Ginsburg ($7.7 million) and Stephen Breyer ($4.2 million).

Most of them possess stocks of profitmaking multinationals which has brought prosperity to them. It is because of this that the Supreme Court in recent years has given verdicts in favour of corporations and against the rights of workers and the poor.

These include a June 1998 ruling that attacked funding for legal assistance to the poor. In February this year, its ruling enabled giant corporations to monopolize broadcasting and cable television.

While the rich continue to accumulate wealth for themselves, millions upon millions of people around the world are trying to survive under conditions of unspeakable degradation.

A United Nations report estimated that basic health and nutritional needs in all "developing" countries combined could be satisfied with an additional expenditure of $13 billion annually. Even taking inflation into account, this amount would represent less than one percent of the wealth of the world's billionaires.

The UNDP's annual Human Development Report for 2003 documents the progress of 175 of the world's poorest countries in the implementation of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed to at the UN General Assembly summit in 2000. It notes that 54 nations are poorer now than they were in 1990.

Twenty of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, while 17 are in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Life expectancy has fallen in 34 countries due primarily to HIV/AIDS. Of 59 priority nations 24 suffer from a high incidence of HIV/AIDS and 31 have "unusually high foreign debts."

A statement by Deputy Director for the UN Development Programme Jean Fabre sheds some light on the massive redistribution of wealth from poorer nations to richer ones over the past decade.

He told reporters, "Economic and political developments in past years have enabled considerable increases in the world's wealth," but "at the same time, many countries have completely regressed in the past 10 years."

The report notes that in 31 of the poorest countries progress towards the MDGs has stalled or begun to reverse. Some countries would not overcome poverty until the year 2165 and it would take 20 Sub-Saharan African nations until 2147 to halve extreme poverty and until 2165 to cut child mortality rates by two-thirds.

There have been catastrophic falls in growth in several countries of the former Soviet Union where poverty is actually increasing. In fact poverty has tripled in the whole region. Per capita income in each of the 42 highly indebted countries is less than $1,500.

Then, Fabre says, the richest countries have established various barriers to the entry of goods from the poor countries on their territories. There are also important subsidies given to the farmers by them making the trade unfair and, even worse, is the dumping of agricultural products from them on the countries having weaker economies.