India Rich List: Mukesh Ambani retains top-spot for 12th year
Forbes India has released its list of richest Indians and for the twelfth year in a row Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani remains India's wealthiest. The 62-year-old billionaire added $4.1 billion to his fortunes, taking his worth to $51.4 billion. Forbes attributed this extra wealth to Jio, the three-year-old telecom unit of Reliance which has become one of the biggest mobile carriers of India.
Here are the top 10 richest Indians
Ambani's opulence is followed by Infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani with $15.7 billion. Following Ambani and Adani are Ashok Leyland owners, the Hinduja brothers with $15.6bn, Shapoorji Pallonji Group's Pallonji Mistry ($15bn), Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak ($14.8bn), HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar ($14.4bn), Avenue Supermarts' Radhakishan Damani ($14.3bn), the Godrej family ($12bn), ArcelorMittal-owner Lakshmi Mittal ($10.5bn), and Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla ($9.6bn).
Adani jumped from #10 last year to #2
Among the surprises this year is Adani, who jumped from the tenth spot last year to the second spot. Adani has broadened his income by undertaking several new business ventures from airports to data centers. Uday Kotak also made it to the top 5 wealthiest Indians for the first time after adding $4 billion to his net worth.
Forbes India Top 100 list features six new faces
The list also features six new faces including: Byju Raveendran at #72, the 38-year-old founder of fast-rising ed-tech unicorn Byju's. Manohar Lal and Madhusudan Agarwal of Haldiram Snacks at #86. Rajesh Mehra at #95, whose family owns the popular Jaquar brand of bathroom fittings. Forbes India notes that since Alkem Laboratories founder Samprada Singh died in July, his fortune is listed under his family.
14 India's richest poorer by at least $1 billion
However, Forbes India reported that the net worth of over half the wealthiest Indians fell. Reportedly, 14 were poorer by at least $1 billion and nine members of the 2018 list dropped-off this year. This year's 100 richest were 8% poorer as compared to last year, leaving their collective wealth at $452 billion. Azim Premji's generous charities account for almost one-third of the fall.
How does Forbes India calculate net worth?
According to Forbes India, the fortunes were calculated by compiling shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and India's regulatory agencies. "Public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of September 27. Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded," Forbes India stated.
