New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani remains the richest Indian for the 12th year in a row. He added $4.1 billion to his net worth as Jio, a three-year old telecom unit of his Reliance Industries, became one of India’s biggest mobile carriers with 340 million subscribers.
Another big gainer was infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani, who jumped eight spots to No. 2. After a nine-year wait, Adani secured permission in June to start work on an Australian coal mine. A resident of Modi’s home state of Gujarat, Adani has ventured into a slew of new businesses from airports to data centers. A $4 billion boost propelled banker Uday Kotak into the top five for the first time. The lower tax rate is expected to boost earnings of his Kotak Mahindra Bank, which saw its shares rise 39% since we last measured fortunes.
There are six new faces this year, including Byju Raveendran, the 38-year-old founder of fast-rising edtech unicorn Byju’s; Manohar Lal and Madhusudan Agarwal of Delhi-headquartered Haldiram Snacks; and Rajesh Mehra, whose family owns the popular Jaquar brand of bathroom fittings. Samprada Singh, founder of Alkem Laboratories, died in July and his fortune is now listed under his family.
The top 10 richest India includes the names of Hinduja brothers, Pallonji Mistry, Uday Kotak, Shiv Nadar, Radhakishan Damani, Godrej family, Lakshmi Mittal and Kumar Birla respectively.
Forbes compiled the list using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and India’s regulatory agencies.
