India's richest 100 doubled their wealth in 5 years; Ambani tops list

Forbes has released its 2024 'India’s 100 Richest' list showing that the country's tycoons saw their wealth surpass a collective trillion-dollar milestone.

The collective wealth of India's richest crossed the trillion-dollar milestone mark, reaching $1.1 trillion. This is twice their worth in 2019, adding around $316 billion in the past 12 months alone, the report noted.

Over 80 percent of the richest Indians are wealthier with 58 of them adding $1 billion or more to their respective net worths. And the top 12 accounts for close to half the top 100's combined wealth.

India's richest 10

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and MD of Reliance Industries, takes the top spot with an estimated net worth of $119.5 billion across diversified assets. He is however the second biggest gainer in dollar terms, adding $27.5 billion this year.

He is followed by Gautam Adani and his family, who are worth an estimated $116 billion across diversified assets. The owner of Adani Group gained the most over the year, adding $48 billion.

Third is India's richest woman, Savitri Jindal and her family, with an estimated net worth of $43.7 billion from their metals and mining business.

Shiv Nadar, takes the fourth spot with an estimated $40.2 billion. He is the chairperson of HLC Enterprise.

And Dilip Shanghvi and his family round up the top five with an estimated net worth of $32.4 billion from Sun Pharmaceuticals.

The others on the top 10 list: Radhakishan Damani and family (worth an estimated $31.5 billion), Sunil Mittal and family (worth an estimated $30.7 billion), Kumar Birla (worth an estimated $24.8 billion), Cyrus Poonawalla (worth an estimated $24.5 billion), and the Bajaj Family (worth an estimated $23.4 billion).

Highlights of  'India's 100 Richest' list

Mahima Datla, the head of vaccine producer Biological E, is the new woman entrant on the top 100 list.
Other new entrants include B Partha Saradhi Reddy, founder of Hetero Labs; Harish Ahuja whose Shahi Exports supplies counts H&M and Calvin Klein among customers; and Surender Saluja, founder and chairman of newly listed Premier Energies (solar panels and modules manufacturer).
Pharma and real estate company owners saw a big boost on the list, including Shanghvi, Torrent Pharmaceuticals' siblings Sudhir Mehta and Samir Mehta, Prestige Estates Projects' Irfan Razack, and the Godrej family.
The youngest person on the list is Nikhil Kamath (38) of the brokerage platform Zerodha.

Ratan Tata, who passed away on October 9, and was chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, was not on the list.

Notably, Forbes' 'India’s 100 Richest' list and 'World’s Billionaires' list are different as the former combines family fortunes to rank members.

The list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts, and India’s regulatory agencies.

It also includes foreign citizens with business, residential, or other ties to India, or citizens who don’t reside in the country but have significant business or other ties here.

(By arrangement with livemint.com)