Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani has retained the top spot on the 2024 Forbes’ list of 100 richest Indian tycoons.
The list saw the country’s top 100 wealthiest cross a trillion dollar in collective net worth for the first time.
Ambani was the second-biggest gainer in dollar terms with his wealth rising $27.5 billion in the past year to $119.5 billion, the report said.
The RIL chief’s current net worth stands at $108.3 billion making him the 13th richest person in the world.
Adani group chairman Gautam Adani came second on the Forbes list with a combined family wealth of $116 billion.
Gautam Adani along with his brother Vinod Adani added $48 billion, and was the biggest gainer in the past year in dollar terms, the report said.
The rise in fortune comes in the backdrop of recovery from US-based short seller Hindenburg’s report that led to a crash in the group’s market capitalisation.
O P Jindal Group’s Savitri Jindal gained a spot to move to the third position for the first time with a net worth of $43.7 billion, up $19.7 billion from last year. She remained India’s richest woman.
Tech titan Shiv Nadar was fourth with a net worth of $40.2 billion. Both billionaires are among half a dozen tycoons who added more than $10 billion each to their wealth.
Dilip Shanghvi ($32.4 billion), Radhakishan Damani ($31.5 billion), Sunil Mittal ($30.7 billion), Kumar Birla ($24.8 billion), Cyrus Poonawalla ($24.5 billion) and the Bajaj Family ($23.4 billion) completed the list of top 10 richest individuals/families.
The report said that a strong stock market performance with investors piling onto the IPO and mutual funds bandwagon has resulted in the rich getting richer. The market frenzy has reached an all-time high as BSE Sensex gained 30 percent since last year.
The combined wealth of the top 100 on the Forbes rich list for 2024 crossed a historic milestone of a trillion dollar. The total wealth jumped 40% to $1.1 trillion in 2024, rising from $799 billion reported in 2023.