Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani is now the eighth richest person in the world with a fortune of $83 billion — up by 24% from last year, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2021. This, Hurun said, comes on the back of a surge in the value of the energy and telecom giant. Ambani has moved up one position from last year.
"India's largest exporter, Reliance accounts for 8% of the country's exports and 5% 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.
Among the countries, India rose to the third spot with 177 billionaires, 40 more than last year. Healthcare, consumer goods, and chemicals had 37, 26, and 19 billionaires each. One hundred and fifty in the last year saw their wealth increase, of which 50 were new faces. Sixteen billionaires ranking decreased and 10 were dropped off. Twelve people remained in the same position.
Among other Indians, Gautam Adani and family are at 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.
Shiv Nadar and family saw wealth rise to $27 billion, up by $10 billion. This comes on the back of a 66% increase in the share price of HCL.
Seventy-four-year-old NR Narayana Murthy’s wealth was up 35% to $3.1billion. Hero Cycles manufacturer, Pankaj Munjal and family featured on the list for the first time with $1.2 billion in wealth.
Others on the list include Murli Divi from Divi’s Laboratories whose wealth grew 72% to US$7.4 billion and Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla Group whose wealth grew 61% to US$9.2 billion.
The most notable person to drop off the list is NMC Healthcare’s BR Shetty, who lost his billionaire status for the first time due to allegations of fraud and a UK court freezing his assets worldwide.
Others who dropped off the list include 27-year-old OYO Rooms CEO Ritesh Agarwal, as the chain was hit hard by the pandemic. Future Retail’s Kishore Biyani, who was the fastest wealth creator in 2018, dropped out after over-leveraging. Rajesh Mehta of Rajesh Exports also dropped off the list.
The Hurun statement said that Mumbai is by far the billionaire capital with 61 billionaires in the city, followed by New Delhi with 40. The average age of the billionaires was 66. There are also 32 billionaires of Indian origin living outside of India, led by Lakshmi N Mittal of ArcelorMittal in London.
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, and grew by a record $151 billion.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the second spot with a 35% increase in his wealth to $189 billion.
In the last year, the world has added 412 billionaires — or eight billionaires a week. This takes it to a total of 3,228 billionaires.
China is leading with 1058 billionaires, up 259, compared to the USA with 696 billionaires, up by 70 when compared to the previous year.
With inputs from IANS