Mukesh Ambani retains top spot as richest Indian in IIFL Hurun Rich List for 9th straight year

Mukesh Ambani (Photo: AFP)


Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani continues to top the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020 for the ninth consecutive year, with his net worth of Rs 6.58 lakh crore. His total wealth has surged by 73 per cent in the last 12 months, propelling him to become the richest individual in Asia and fourth richest person in the world.

Ambani is followed by London-based Hinduja brothers (SP Hinduja, along with his three brothers) at the second place, with a joint wealth of Rs 1.43 lakh crore bagged the second position.

HCL Founder Shiv Nadar with a wealth of Rs 1.41 lakh crore ranked third, followed by Gautam Adani and family at fourth spot and Azim Premji at fifth spot with Rs 1,40 lakh crore, Rs 1,14 lakh crore respectively.

“A 28 per cent of the upswing in wealth on the list has been bestowed by Mukesh Ambani, bespeaking Ambani’s meteoric success post diversifying from oil to telecom and retail. A further 21 per cent of the additional wealth has been generated by pharma, mainly on the back of the rise in healthcare spends and a realigned priority towards personal healthcare stimulated by the Covid-19,” Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India said.

“With rising new wealth creators such as innovative startups, family businesses with strong professional management, investors who believe in the India story, and a demographic advantage that is inferior to none, the India’s wealth creation story is still yet to reach the half-way mark.”

“Assuming that for every one Hurun rich lister we have found, we have probably missed two, it is likely that India today has 3,000 individuals with INR 1,000 Cr”, he added.

Avenue Supermarts founder Radhakishan Damani makes a debut and Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma regains a spot in the top 10.

The cut-off for the top 10 rose by 6 per cent to Rs 76,000 crore this year, a 10 per cent increase compared to the previous year.

The cumulative wealth of IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich Listers have increased by 20 per cent compared to that of last year. 84 individuals have migrated from India and are NRIs. 19 saw their wealth double year on year.

All three of Udaan founders became the highest gainers. The three co-founders include Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar and Vaibhav Gupta. They “had their wealth increase by 274 per cent on account of strong investor interest in B2B e-commerce and topped the biggest gainer list in IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020 for the second consecutive year. Valuation of Udaan increased from Rs 20,000 crore in October 2019 to Rs 52,500 crore in February 2020.”

Other second fastest riser is: “Chigurupati Krishna Prasad’s flagship company, Granules India’s strong growth in formulation revenue, new product additions in the API segment, and reduced costs owing to backward integration resulted in a 257 per cent increase in its share price this year,” the statement read.

With a wealth of Rs 4,500 crore, Ritesh Agarwal (26) of Oyo Rooms is the youngest person on the list and with a wealth of Rs 5,400 Crore, Dharam Pal Gulati (96) of MDH is the oldest on the list.

Nearly 5 per cent of the list (40 individuals) is comprised of women. 10 out of these 40 women are self-made.

The richest woman in the list is Smita V Crishna, of Godrej with Rs 32,400 crore, followed by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, of Biocon with a wealth of Rs 31,600 crore.