India added 601 new billionaires since 2014, with Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani topping the ‘Barclays Hurun India Rich List-2018’ for the seventh consecutive year with an estimated wealth of Rs3.71tn.
As per the report, in 2014, there were 230 billionaires or multi-billionaires, which shot up to 831 in the 2018 in the BHI Rich List.
In 2012, the figure was a modest 59 billionaires, which climbed to 141 in 2013. But after notching 230 billionaires in 2014, the list has grown phenomenally with 296 (2015), 339 (2016), 617 (2017) and now 831 billionaires in 2018.
Similarly, the number of dollar billionaires in India in the past seven years at the prevailing exchange rates has shot up from 59 (2012) to 141 (2018) as the dollar’s value grew from Rs55.60 to Rs68.40 during the period.
The cumulative wealth of these 831 individuals featured in the latest list stands at $719bn, or one-quarter of the Indian GDP of $2,848bn as per the IMF’s April 2018 estimates. After Ambani comes S P Hinduja and family of Hinduja Group with estimated wealth of Rs1.59tn, Arcelor-Mittal’s L N Mittal and family at Rs1.14tn in the top bracket.
Following them are: Wipro’s Azim Premji at Rs961bn, Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd’s Dilip Shanghvi at Rs897bn, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Uday Kotak at Rs786bn, Serum Institute of India’s Cyrus Poonawalla at Rs730bn, Adani Group’s Gautam Adani and family at Rs712bn and Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry’s Cyrus P Mistry at Rs694bn.
Five of the Top 10 belong to Maharashtra, one each from Gujarat and Karnataka, two are London-based and one is in Monaco, as per the rich list.
Ambani: worth Rs3.71tn
