New Delhi: Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani is now the eighth richest person in the world with a fortune of $83 billion, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2021.
Ambani's wealth increased 24 per cent on a year-on-year basis on the back of a surge in the value of energy-to-telecom giant RIL.
"India's largest exporter, Reliance accounts for 8 per cent of the country's exports and 5 per cent of India's total revenues from customs and excise duty. Reliance is planning a calculated shift to renewable energy and has decided to venture into the battery-making business ahead of the electric vehicle boom," said the Hurun statement.
His rank in the previous Hurun Global Rich List was ninth.
Among other Indians, Gautam Adani and family was at the 48th place among the top 100 billionaires. Adani saw his wealth almost double to $32 billion, on the back of Adani Green Energy growing to a $20 billion valuation, it noted.
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The richest individual in the world is Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with a net worth of $197 billion. Musk's wealth grew over three-fold in 2020.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was on the second spot with a 35 per cent increase in his wealth to $189 billion.
India at 3rd spot by adding 40 billionaires
As per the Hurun report, forty Indians entered the billionaires' club in the pandemic-stricken 2020 to take the number of those in the coveted list to 177 people. With this addition, India stands at the third position in the list of countries with highest billionaires.
While Mukesh Ambani is the richest Indian, Gautam Adani from Gujarat, who has had a spectacular rise in fortunes in the last few years, saw his wealth almost doubling to USD 32 billion last year.
In 2020, he climbed 20 places to be the 48th richest person globally and the second wealthiest Indian. His brother Vinod's wealth grew 128 per cent to USD 9.8 billion.
IT company HCL's Shiv Nadar was the third wealthiest Indian with a fortune of USD 27 billion while some peers in the tech industry dominated the list of fastest growing wealth.
Jay Chaudhry of software company Zcaler saw a 274 per cent rise in networth to USD 13 billion during the year while Byju Raveendran and family saw a 100 per cent increase in its wealth to USD 2.8 billion, the report said.
Diversified corporate house Mahindra Group's head Anand Mahindra and family also saw a 100 per cent increase in wealth to USD 2.4 billion, it said.
The financial capital continues to lead in the country from a concentration perspective, being home to 60 of the 177 Indian billionaires, followed by New Delhi at 40 and Bengaluru at 22 billionaires, it said.
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From a gender perspective, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon leads with a networth of USD 4.8 billion (up 41 per cent), Smita V Crishna of Godrej at USD 4.7 billion and Lupin's Manju Gupta at USD 3.3 billion.
Among those who saw a decline in their networth during the year was Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali Ayurved at USD3.6 billion, down 32 per cent.
The report comes at a time when concerns are being raised about a 'K-shaped' recovery being underway, where a select few prosper.
Hurun India's Managing Director and Chief Researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said Indian wealth creation is dominated by cyclical or traditional industries compared to tech-driven wealth creation in the US and China.
"When the tech-driven wealth creation reaches full potential, India could potentially beat USA in terms of the number of billionaires," he added.
At present, only the US and China are ahead of India in terms of number of billionaires with 1,058 and 696 billionaires respectively.
India is followed by Germany and UK with 141 and 134 billionaires respectively.
(with agency inputs)
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