How do I scroll to the top of a list? On iOS, I can single-tap the top of the screen to scroll any list all the way to the top. This doesn't seem to work on my Nexus 4 (4.2.1 / CM10.1) and for instance in the list of phone contacts this is particularly tedious.

Is there a similar gesture on Android?

I'm surprised that I couldn't find this as an existing question, but I did search for it.
As far as I know, there's nothing built into the OS for that. 

I guess it depends completely on the developers of the app you're using. I've seen some apps where, once you start scrolling, a "handle" appears on the side of the screen that you can tap-and-drag to scroll faster. I've even seen an app or two where you could touch the top of the screen to immediately scroll to the top of whatever multi-screen thing you're looking at. But it's certainly not universal.