New Delhi, Sept 26 : Amassing a net worth of Rs 380,700 crore, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani maintained his number one spot for the eighth consecutive years, as per the IIFL Wealth-Hurun India Rich List 2019. Ambani’s wealth grew by three percent from the previous year.
Hinduja Group of companies Chairman SP Hinduja came in second with a net worth of Rs 186,500 crore while Wipro Founder Azim Premji rounded off the top three with Rs 117,100 crore wealth.
LN Mittal, the CEO and chairman of steel major ArcelorMittal, took the fourth spot with Rs 107,300 crore. Gautam Adani, the chairman and founder of the Adani Group, ranked up at fifth with a total wealth of Rs 94,500 crore. Adani was the biggest gainer of the year, adding Rs 22,300 crore to his net worth since 2018.
The number of Indians on the list has grown to 953 (+122). The average age of those on the list is 60. The youngest self-made entrepreneur on the list is Oyo Rooms’ Ritesh Agarwal (25) with Rs 7,500 crore.
The 2019 list also featured 152 women, with HCL Enterprise CEO Roshni Nadar leading the ranks, followed by Smita V Crishna (68) of Godrej Group with a net worth Rs 31,400 crore.
With a net worth of Rs 18,500 crore, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon retains the crown of the richest self-made woman in India.
The average age among women was 56 years old.
“More than half (53 percent) of those featured on the list inherited their wealth, which indicates a strong focus on wealth preservation apart from creation,” pointed out Yatin Shah, Co-founder & Executive Director, IIFL Wealth Management.
Interestingly, the cumulative wealth has increased by 2 percent, but the average wealth has dropped 11 percent as 344 individuals (75 percent) witnessed wealth reduction and another 112 could not meet the Rs 1,000 crore threshold.
“While the number of $ billionaires have merely grown by 2 as compared to 2016; the number individuals with Rs 1,000 crore have increased by a third in the past two years – from 617 to 953. This indicates that wealth is getting generated across the “bottom end” of the top of the pyramid,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD & Chief Researcher, Hurun Report India.
“With Indian Government setting its sight on $5 trillion GDP mark – we are confident that the size of the India Rich List will easily triple in the next five years,” Junaid added.
Among Indian cities, Mumbai had the highest number of rich and famous with 246 (26 percent) residing in the ‘City of Dreams’, followed by New Delhi (175) and Bengaluru (77). But, these three cities contributed to only 35 percent of new additions, compared to 59 percent in 2018.
