For the 12th consecutive year, Reliance Industries’ Chairman Mukesh Ambani topped Forbes India Rich List 2019, with his net worth at $51.4 billion.
“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,” said Forbes in an online article.
📢 Forbes India Rich List 2019 is out now. Find out who made big gains in this challenging year: https://t.co/HhQsMVgBj2 #ForbesIndiaRichList2019 pic.twitter.com/upTT4Wo30G
— Forbes India (@forbes_india) October 10, 2019
The company stated that ‘it was a challenging year for the nation’s wealthiest.’ As the total wealth of this year’s 100 wealthiest fell by 8% from a year ago to $452 billion. “In all, 14 were poorer by $1 billion or more, and nine members from last year’s ranks dropped off,” Forbes India said.
“Azim Premji, who gave away a chunk of his fortune in March and consequently dropped in the ranks to No. 17 from No. 2. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Premji has so far donated $21 billion to his education-focused charity, which includes two-thirds of his shares in Wipro (he retains a 7% stake),” it added.
Following Ambani and Gautam Adani of Adani Ports & SEZ (net worth-$15.7 bn) in the list are, Hinduja brothers of Ashok Leyland, Pallonji Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji Group, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank, with a net worth of $15.6 bn, $15 bn, $14.8 bn respectively.
Other than the experienced businessmen, six new players have also made to the Forbes list including Byju Raveendran of Byju’s is at no. 72 with $1.91 billion. Byju is then followed by Haldiram Snacks’ Manohar Lal & Madhusudan Agarwal is at no. 86 with $1.7 billion. Rajesh Mehra of Jaquar made to the 95th position with $1.5 billion.
The slowdown in the automobile industry have affected the Autoparts maker, Vivek Chaand Sehgal as his net worth was slashed to $2.45 billion, at no. 52.
(With input from agencies)