Business Desk, ETV Bharat: Even as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the Indian economy in the year 2020, the country’s richest not just managed to preserve their wealth, but also increased it manifold, throwing a spotlight on the country’s increasing income divide.
The Forbes India Rich List 2020, which was released on Thursday, highlighted that in the “year which saw record economic erosion and businesses of all shapes and sizes came to a grinding halt, India's richest got richer”.
Billionaires in India added $88.62 billion to their cumulative wealth in 2020 compared to 2019 despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Forbes.
Not just that, fewer billionaires saw their wealth erode this year than they did in 2019, the report added.
Mukesh Ambani remained the wealthiest Indian for 13th year in a row, adding $37.3 billion to his net worth, bringing his fortune to $88.7 billion, a rise of 73%.
Read more: Two in 5 Indian professionals experiencing increased stress due to COVID-19: Survey
Adani Group’s Gautam Adani retained the second spot by boosting his net worth by 61% to $25.2 billion, while HCL’s Shiv Nadar was the third richest spot with $20.4 billion of net worth.
Interestingly, the gap between the wealthiest and the second wealthiest, i.e. between Ambani and Adani, stood at a massive $63.5 billion, increasing nearly twice in 2020 compared with a year ago.
Vaccine maker Cyrus Poonawalla entered the top 10 at sixth place as all eyes remain on the covid-19 antidote, while Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar Shaw became the highest wealth gainer in percentage terms, with her net worth rising 93.28% compared to 2019.
Nusli Wadia of Britannia Industries saw highest percentage drop in wealth at 43.67% in 2020 compared to 2019, while in absolute terms, the most hit was Shapoorji Pallonji Group's Pallonji Mistry with $3.6 billion of wealth lost this year.
Notably, public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of 18 September 2020, while private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded.
