The Top 10 Wealthiest Billionaires of India
The pandemic COVID-19 was a double-sized hitting rock for India’s billionaires, whose luck had already taken a punch from a declining economy and decreasing customer demand. Likewise, before India moved into a complete lockdown at the end of March, its stock market had fallen to a three-year low as of March 18, the date we concluded this year’s list. The total number of Indian billionaires has dropped to 102, versus 106 in 2019. And, more tellingly, their accumulated wealth has narrowed 23% to $313 billion.
Like to a fifth of that drop can be credited to the kindness of tech tycoon Azim Premji, who gave a massive piece of his shares in openly traded Wipro in 2019 to his foundation, making his entire life contributing to his education-focused charity to $21 billion.
Low profile retailing tycoon Radhakishan Damani reached out between the overall route. His fate is higher by a point to $13.8 billion that leads him to present him India’s second-richest person for the first time. Shares of his Avenue Supermarts that operates the DMart supermarket chain, an Indian version of Wal-Mart, have been almost immune to the COVID effect.
DMart’s value-for-money model, including 196 stores, urges to India’s middle-class shoppers. An intelligent investor who created a portfolio of growth stocks before he branched out into retailing, Damani is unusually viewed at public meetings.
Oil and gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of $36.8 billion, held his title as the richest Indian, despite a $13.2 billion decline from a year ago. Ambani’s Reliance Industries has moved up a mountain of liability after its extension into telecom with its Jio service, with 370 million subscribers.
Ambani has pledged to decrease Reliance’s net liability to zero by 2021, partially by selling assets, such as a contract to sell a 20% share in its refining and petrochemicals business Saudi Aramco. Now, the oil price crash is throwing a shadow over that $15 billion sales.
Despite the overall drop, a dozen fresh Indian faces arrive this year. The most youthful newcomer is 39-year-old Byju Raveendran, a former math teacher who founded and operated fast-rising ed-tech unicorn Byju’s.
In its latest funding round in January, the company was valued at $8 billion with the investors, including Mark Zuckerberg and Tencent of China. His Byju’s app, intended at children from class one to twelve, has recorded 42 million downloads. Forbes calculates his net worth to be approx $1.8 billion.
Here are the Top 10 wealthiest billionaires of India; net worths are March 18, 2020:
1) MUKESH AMBANI
NET WORTH: $36.8 BILLION
RESIDENCE: MUMBAI
SOURCE OF WEALTH: PETROCHEMICALS, OIL & GAS
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani was born in 1957 and became the Indian billionaire business magnate. Mukesh Ambani is the chairman, managing director and holds a large share of Reliance Industries Ltd.
Reliance Industries Ltd comes under Fortune Global 500 company and India’s most valuable company by market value. Mukesh D Ambani is currently, the richest man in Asia with a net worth of US$36.8 billion. As of August 16, 2020, he was listed on Forbes as the 6th richest person in the world.
2) RADHAKISHAN DAMANI
NET WORTH: $13.8 BILLION
RESIDENCE: MUMBAI
SOURCE OF WEALTH: RETAIL, INVESTMENTS
Radhakishan S. Damani is an Indian billionaire investor, businessman, and founder of DMart. He also maintains his portfolio through his Investment Company, Bright Star Investments Limited. He also holds up a 1% share in Andhra Paper.
Damani pulled up a 15% share in India cement in May 2020 and took his investment in India Cements to 19.89%. Damani owns ten stocks in his investment portfolio, and the total value of his stock portfolio is approximately Rs 80000 cr ( about 10.05 Billion USD) in 2020.
3) SHIV NADAR
NET WORTH: $11.9 BILLION
RESIDENCE: DELHI
SOURCE OF WEALTH: SOFTWARE SERVICES\
Wealthiest Billionaires :Shiv Nadar was born on July 14, 1945. Shiv Nadar an Indian philanthropist and billionaire industrialist.
He is the chairman and founder of HCL Technologies Limited and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. He became the founder in the mid-1970s of HCL and changed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the upcoming three decades by continually reinventing its concern. In 2008, Nadar received the Padma Bhushan award for his struggles in the IT industry.
He was nicknamed as Magus (Old Persian for “wizard”). Since the mid-1990s, Nadar has focused his efforts on improving India’s educational system through the Shiv Nadar University.
4) UDAY KOTAK
NET WORTH: $10.4 BILLION
RESIDENCE: MUMBAI
SOURCE OF WEALTH: BANKING
Uday Kotak was born on March 15, 1959. He is an Indian Wealthiest billionaire banker. Kotak is also managing director and the executive vice-chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
In the early 1980s, while India was still a restricted economy and economic growth was not derived, Kotak determined to commence his own, rejecting a lucrative job option from a multinational.
Over the next few years, he expanded his business into various financial services, installing a leading presence in bills discounting, life insurance, investment banking, stockbroking, car finance, and mutual funds.
In the year 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd became the first company in India’s corporate history to obtain a banking license from the Reserve Bank of India. In 2006 he dropped his 14-year old partnership with Goldman Sachs by taking its 25% share in two subsidiaries for $72 million.
5) GAUTAM ADANI
NET WORTH: $8.9 BILLION
RESIDENCE: AHMEDABAD
SOURCE OF WEALTH: COMMODITIES, PORTS
Gautam Shantilal Adani is 1962 born and became an Indian Wealthiest billionaire industrialist, the Adani Group chairman, and founder of an Ahmedabad-based multinational conglomerate associated with port development and operations in India.
Adani is the President of the Adani Foundation that is initially led by his wife, Priti Adani. He established The Adani Group in 1988 and expanded his business into defense, resources, agriculture, logistics, energy, and aerospace, amongst others.
He holds a 66% share in Adani Ports & SEZ Limited, a 73% share in Adani Power, a 75% share in Adani Enterprises, a 75% hare in Adani Transmission. In 2019, he was ranked as the 3rd most influential person in India by India Today.
6) SUNIL MITTAL
NET WORTH: $8.8 BILLION
RESIDENCE: DELHI
SOURCE OF WEALTH: TELECOM
Sunil Bharti Mittal is 1957 born.
He is an Indian Wealthiest billionaire entrepreneur, philanthropist, and chairperson of Bharti Enterprises that has diversified interests in telecom, real estate, education, Agri, malls, insurance, hospitality, and food. Bharti Airtel, the group’s flagship company, is among the world’s largest and India’s second-largest telecom company with services in 18 countries across Asia and Africa with a consumer base of about 399 million.
Bharti Airtel measured revenues of over US$14.75 billion in FY2016. In 2007, he was acknowledged with the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian recognition. On June 15, 2016, he was selected as Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.
7) CYRUS POONAWALLA
NET WORTH: $8.2 BILLION
RESIDENCE: PUNE
SOURCE OF WEALTH: VACCINES
Dr. Cyrus S. Poonawalla was born in 1941. He is an IndianWealthiest Billionaires,Parsi businessman who is also known as the “vaccine king of India.” He is the chairman of Poonawalla Group, including the Serum Institute of India, the Indian biotech company that manufactures pediatric vaccines.
Serum Institute exports vaccines across 165 countries, and one out of each two children on the planet has been vaccinated by a vaccine of Serum Institute of India. Hurun Global Rich List listed Dr. Poonawalla as the 4th wealthiest personality in India and 100th globally, with a net worth of $ 13 billion in 2019.
8) KUMAR BIRLA
NET WORTH: $7.6 billion
RESIDENCE: MUMBAI
SOURCE OF WEALTH: COMMODITIES
Kumar Mangalam Birla is 1967 born. He is an IndianWealthiest Billionaires ,industrialist and the chairman of Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India.
He is the chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
9) LAKSHMI MITTAL
NET WORTH: $7.4 BILLION
RESIDENCE: LONDON
SOURCE OF WEALTH: STEEL
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is 1950 born and became an Indian steel industrialist, based in the United Kingdom. He is the chairman and Cheif Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal that is the world’s largest steelmaking company.
Mittal holds 38% of ArcelorMittal and holds a 20% stake in Queens Park Rangers F.C. In 2007, Mittal was estimated to be the wealthiest Asian person in Europe. Mittal is a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008. He is a part of the World Steel Association’s executive committee.
He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, the Global CEO Council of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan, and the European Round Table Industrialists. He is also a member of the board of administrators of the Cleveland Clinic.
10) AZIM PREMJI
NET WORTH: $6.1 BILLION
RESIDENCE: BANGALORE
SOURCE OF WEALTH: SOFTWARE SERVICES
Azim Hashim Premji was born on July 24, 1945. He is an Indian Wealthiest Billionaires business tycoon, engineer, investor, philanthropist, and Wipro Limited chairman. Premji is popularly known as the Czar of the Indian I.T. Industry. He was managing Wipro for four decades of diversification and growth, finally emerging as one of the global leaders in the software industry.
In 2010, he was determined among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He has twice been recorded among the 100 most influential people by TIME Magazine, once in 2004 and more recently in 2011. For years, he has been frequently listed among the 500 Most Influential Muslims of the world. In 2013, he admitted to giving away at least half of his wealth by signing The Giving Pledge. Premji started with a $2.2 billion donation to the Azim Premji Foundation concerned with education in India.
