Mukesh Ambani has retained his title as the world’s richest Indian for the ninth year in a row, this time by an even wider margin, according to the Hurun-IIFL Wealth report released Tuesday. Ashok Soota, 77, has made his debut on India’s rich list, coming off an excellent list from his IT company Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd.
The ranking comes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has put the Indian economy on track for its first annual contraction in at least four decades and has raised the specter of wider inequality when growth returns. The list includes 828 Indians who were worth more than 1 billion rupees as of August 31, 2020.
According to Hurun’s rich list:
- The net worth of Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., rose 73% to Rs 6.58 lakh crore, as shares in his company rose along with dizzying fundraising from Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail.
- Cyrus Mistry and Shapoor Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji group, which is seeking close to 1.78 crore lakh for its 18.4% stake in Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., saw a 1% decline in wealth to Rs 76,000 crore each.
- Gautam Adani, who is diversifying his namesake conglomerate, saw his net worth increase 48% to Rs 1.40 lakh crore. He is now the fourth richest Indian. It recently acquired six regional airports, as well as Mumbai Airport, from GMR Group.
- Hinduja Brothers, reportedly embroiled in a property dispute, are worth Rs 1.43 lakh crore. They managed to remain second richest despite a 23% decline in their wealth.
- These individuals are followed by Shiv Nadar and his family from HCL Technologies Ltd., whose fortunes increased 34% to Rs 1.41 lakh crore. Azim Premji of Wipro Ltd. slipped two places to fifth place in the rankings with a net worth of Rs 1.14 lakh crore.
- Cyrus Poonawalla, President of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, saw his net worth increase 6% to Rs 94,300 crore and was ranked sixth.
- Radhakishan Damani of D-Mart (Avenue Supermarts Ltd.) and his family entered the Top 10 with a 56% increase in wealth to Rs 87,200 crore.
- Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. promoter Uday Kotak saw an 8% decrease in his net worth to Rs 87,000 crore, sliding one place to eighth place.
- Following a successful initial public offering, Ashok Soota of Happiest Minds, 77, debuted on the list with a net worth of Rs 3.7 billion.
Mumbai still has an advantage over Delhi when it comes to being home to the richest Indians. Most of the richest Indians abroad live in the United States.
Only 40 of the 828 people, or 5% of the list, are women. Smita Crishna de Godrej, 69, leads the table with a net worth of Rs 32.4 billion. Kiran Majumdar-Shaw of Biocon follows with a net worth of Rs 31.6 billion.
