Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes’ list of India’s richest in 2021 with a net worth of $92.7 billion
A soaring stock market has pushed the combined wealth of members of the 2021 Forbes list of India’s 100 richest people to a record US$775 billion, after adding $257 billion – a 50 percent increase – over the past 12 months. In this bumper year, more than 80 percent of lists saw their fortunes increase, with 61 raising $1 billion or more.
Topping the list is Mukesh Ambani, the richest person in India since 2008 with a net worth of $92.7 billion. Ambani recently outlined plans to pivot into renewable energy with a $10 billion investment by his Reliance Industries.
One-fifth of the growth in the collective wealth of India’s 100 richest people came from infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani, who is at No. 2 for the third year in a row. Adani, which is the biggest gainer in both percentage and dollar terms, saw its fortunes nearly triple to $74.8 billion from $25.2 billion earlier, with shares of all its listed companies rising sharply.
Shiv Nadar, the founder of software giant HCL Technologies, is at number three with $31 billion, which has seen a $10.6 billion increase in his wealth from the country’s booming tech sector.
Retailing magnate Radhakishan Damani retained the fourth spot, nearly doubling his net worth from $15.4 billion to $29.4 billion, as his supermarket chain Avenue Supermarts opened 22 new stores in the fiscal year ending March.
India has so far administered over 870 million COVID-19 vaccine shots, partly thanks to the Serum Institute of India, founded by vaccine billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla, tops with a net worth of $19 billion. Goes to five. His privately held company Covishield manufactures under license from AstraZeneca and has other COVID-19 vaccines under development.
India’s recovery from the deadly second wave of COVID-19 that began earlier this year has restored investor confidence in the world’s sixth-largest economy.
There are six newcomers to this year’s list, half of whom are from the fast-growing chemicals sector. These include Ashok Bub (Number 93, $2.3 billion), whose Clean Science and Technology listed in July; Deepak Mehta (No. 97, $2.05 billion) of Deepak Nitrite and Yogesh Kothari (No. 100, $1.94 billion) of Alkyl Amine Chemicals. Arvind Lal (No. 87, $2.55 billion), executive chairman of diagnostics chain Dr Lal Pathlabs, also debuted on the list after his company’s shares doubled over the past year due to a pandemic-induced surge in testing.
Property veteran and politician Mangal Prabhat Lodha (No. 42, $4.5 billion) returned to the ranks after the country’s IPO rush spurred its April listing of macrotech developers. Among the four other returnees is Pratap Reddy (No. 88, $2.53 billion), whose listed hospital chain Apollo Hospitals Enterprise is testing and treating Covid-19 patients.
In view of the increased cut-off to get admission in this year’s list, last year’s eleven lists were skipped. The minimum amount needed to make this year’s list was $1.94 billion, up from $1.33 billion last year.
Nazneen Karmali, Asia Wealth Editor and India Editor, Forbes Asia, said: “This year’s list reflects India’s resilience and spirit of doing, even as COVID-19 has taken a toll on both lives and livelihoods Hopes of a V-Shaped Recovery Raised A stock market rally that propelled the fortunes of India’s wealthiest to new heights With minimum net worth bringing the ranks closer to $2 billion, the top 100 club is becoming more exclusive Is. “
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