Reliance Industries boss Mukesh Ambani on Thursday emerged as India’s wealthiest person for the 10th straight year as his net worth swelled to $ 38 billion (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore) while the wealth of 100 richest rose by 26 percent despite economic hiccups.
Mukesh Ambani was named India’s richest person for a ninth year in a row with a sharp increase in networth to USD 22.7 billion in 2016. Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi, who was second most rishest man, slipped to the ninth now ($ 12.1 billion) on Forbes magazine’s annual ‘India Rich List 2017’.
Wipro’s Azim Premji occupied the 2nd spot this year with a net worth of $ 19 billion. He was fourth on the richest Indian list last year.
It appears that the demonetisation announcement and other ‘economic experiments’ taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not affect India’s billionaires.
“Despite India’s economic hiccups, tycoons on the 2017 Forbes India Rich List saw their wealth soar as their combined fortunes rose 26 per cent to $ 479 billion (over Rs 31 lakh crore),” Forbes said.
“India’s turbo-charged economy sputtered in the quarter ended in June as it grew at a three-year low of 5.7 per cent, due to the aftershocks of last November’s demonetisation and uncertainties over the rollout of a nation-wide Goods and Services Tax. Despite this, the stock market scaled new heights and boosted the fortunes of the nation’s 100 richest,” it added.
Anil Ambani, Mukesh’s younger brother, slipped 13 positions to rank at 45th place with $ 3.15 billion.
Patanjali Ayurved’s Acharya Balkrishna, known as a close associate of controversial guru, Ramdev, made a big jump from 48th place last year to 19th now with a net worth of $ 6.55 billion (about Rs 43,000 crore), reported PTI.
In the case of Ambani, improved refining margins and his telecom unit Reliance Jio’s thundering success in notching up 130 million subscribers since its 2016 launch pushed up shares of Reliance Industries.
The Hinduja brothers are at the third position with $ 18.4 billion while Lakshmi Mittal is now ranked fourth ($ 16.5 billion) and Pallonji Mistry fifth ($ 16 billion).
Among the five other new entrants to the list are Dinesh Nandwana (88, $ 1.72 billion) of e-governance services firm Vakrangee; Vijay Shekhar Sharma (99, $ 1.47 billion) of fast-rising mobile wallet Paytm and Rana Kapoor (100, $ 1.46 billion) of Yes Bank.
Veteran investor Radhakishan Damani, boosted by the listing of his supermarket chain D-Mart in March, returned to the list at 12th place with a net worth of $ 9.3 billion.
Other returnees are Future Group’s Kishore Biyani (55th, $ 2.75 billion) and siblings Murli Dhar and Bimal Gyanchandani (75, $ 1.96 billion).
