Ambani pips Adani to become richest Indian on Hurun list

Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani has raced ahead of Gautam Adani to become the richest Indian on a list of wealthiest people in the country.

The 66-year-old chairman of the diversified Reliance Industries saw his wealth growing by a marginal two per cent to Rs 8.08 lakh crore, while Adani's fortune plummeted by 57 per cent to Rs 4.74 lakh crore, as per the 360 ONE Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2023.

Anas Rahman Junaid, managing director and chief researcher at Hurun, attributed the decline in Adani's wealth to the Hindenburg report published in January. In January, the US-based short seller came out with a damning report on the Adani Group, alleging a slew of irregularities which led to a sharp correction in the group stocks and consequent wealth erosion for the promoter family. Adani has denied all the allegations.

A total of 1,319 individuals from 138 cities feature on the list which uses August 30 as the base date to assess fortunes. Pune-based Cyrus Poonawalla of vaccine maker Serum Institute of India has retained the position as the third wealthiest Indian, with a 36 per cent jump in the fortune at Rs 2.78 lakh crore, while Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies has retained his position as the fourth richest with a 23 per cent increase to Rs 2.28 lakh crore.

A majority of individuals among the top-10 climbed up on the rankings, including Gopichand Hinduja who is ranked fifth now, Dilip Shanghvi (sixth), L N Mittal (seventh), Kumar Mangalam (ninth) and Niraj Bajaj (tenth). However, D-Mart's Radhakishan Damani witnessed an 18 per cent decline in his net worth to Rs 1.43 lakh crore, which resulted in him slipping three ranks to become the eighth richest Indian. Radha Vembu of Zoho has overtaken Falguni Nayar to become the richest self-made Indian woman, while Zepto's Kaivalya Vohra is the youngest on the list. At the age of 94, Mahendra Ratilal Mehta of Precision Wires India company debuted on the list.

India added two new billionaires every three weeks in the past year and now boasts of 259 billionaires, which is a 4.4-fold increase in 12 years, Hurun said. Amid concerns about inequalities, the list said 51 individuals saw their wealth double this year compared to 24 last year. With 328 individuals, Mumbai tops the India Rich list followed by New Delhi (199) and Bengaluru (100); for the first time, it said, adding that Tiruppur debuted among the top 20 cities producing the maximum number of entrants. Industry veteran Manish Kejriwal of Kedaara Capital has become the first person from the private equity sector to enter the list of richest Indians with a fortune of Rs 3,000 crore.