Top 10 Most Rich Person in India 2022
We all know that wealth does not stay constant, especially in the current industry environment caused by the ongoing covid epidemic. Even in these challenging circumstances, where the stock market continues to fluctuate, India has generated several billionaires who now hold a substantial number of positions on the list of the world’s richest people.
Top 10 Richest people in India are listed below.
1. Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Ambani, whose full name is Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, is a Yemeni-born Indian business magnate who is the chairman and MD of Reliance Industries Limited, the flagship firm of the Reliance Group, an Indian energy and materials conglomerate. He was born in the Yemeni city of Aden on April 19, 1957.
Ambani raised $20 billion during the lockout by selling a third of his Jio holding to Google and Facebook investors. Mukesh Ambani has held the number one spot for more than a decade.
Dhirubhai Ambani, who began his career as a gas station attendant, had four children. Because of the growing volatile political situation in Aden, the family moved to the Bhuleshwar neighbourhood of Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1958, where they resided in a chawl (a communal building that commonly features low-rent two-room apartments). In the same year, Dhirubhai and a relative launched the Reliance Commercial Corporation, which expanded from a commodities-trading operation run out of a one-room renting facility into RIL.
Ambani graduated from the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai) with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and went to Stanford University for a master’s degree in business administration. He left the programme in 1981 to join the family firm, where he sought to diversify the company’s operations, which included communications, infrastructure, petrochemicals, petroleum refining, polyester fibres, and gas and oil production, among other fields. PricewaterhouseCoopers, a professional services corporation, named him one of the world’s most regarded business executives in 2004.
After Dhirubhai died in 2002, Ambani and his brother, Anil, took over as joint CEOs of the Reliance Group. However, feuds between the brothers for control prompted their mother, Kokilaben Ambani, to split Reliance’s assets through a non-competition agreement (2006–10). Under the Reliance Group banner, Mukesh acquired control of the gas, oil, and petrochemicals units as RIL. Ambani is recognised for establishing the world’s largest start-up petroleum refinery and directing the construction of various cutting-edge manufacturing facilities that significantly expanded RIL’s production capacities.
In 2006, he was selected to co-chair the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) India Economic Summit—an annual gathering of some of the world’s most prominent business leaders, politicians, policymakers, scholars, philanthropists, trade unionists, and representatives of non-governmental organisations that discuss global commerce, economic development, political concerns, and critical social issues. He became India’s first trillionaire the following year.
Ambani was ranked the world’s richest man in 2007 by both the Economic Times newspaper and the Press Trust of India news agency. The following year, he founded the Mumbai Indians, an Indian Premier League cricket team. He was elected to the WEF Foundation Board of Directors in 2010.
2. Gautam Adani
The infrastructure tycoon has been valued at $74.8 billion. He also has interests in electricity generation and transmission, edible oil, and real estate, in addition to infrastructural development. Adani owns a 74% ownership in Mumbai International Airport, which is interesting.
Gautam Adani is the Chairman and Founder of India’s Adani Group, one of the country’s top three industrial conglomerates. Mr Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur, is guided by the principle of combining “Growth with Goodness” in his nation-building ambition. Each of the Group’s companies is focused on developing world-class infrastructure capabilities to aid India’s growth.
The Adani Group comprises six publicly traded companies with a total market valuation of more than $148.62 billion (as of February 1, 2022), with operations in Energy, Ports & Logistics, Mining & Resources, Gas, Defense & Aerospace, and Airports. The Group has developed leadership positions in India in each business sector.
Mr Adani defines nation-building as reshaping India’s coastline by constructing a chain of ports and logistics hubs, resulting in tens of thousands of employees. It entails improving India’s power situation and bridging the urban-rural divide by bringing electricity to hundreds of millions of people living in its hinterlands. It ensures food security by establishing a modern agriculture supply chain that empowers farmers.
Making the most significant commitment to the renewables ecosystem covering solar manufacturing, generating, and solar park industries means meeting India’s energy needs and becoming one of the largest players in sustainable energy. It entails playing a pivotal role in assisting India in becoming self-sufficient in terms of defence and security and establishing India as a defence industrial hub.
Adnani Group has a solid track record of partnering with global leaders who want to be a part of India’s growth storey; these international companies’ global expertise in their respective businesses, combined with Adani Group’s local execution and market capabilities, has resulted in long-term partnerships. Wilmar Group, Total SA, and Elbit Systems are just a few of the partners on the list.
His main areas of interest are the Adani Foundation, the Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility arm. The Foundation’s pan-India projects in education, healthcare, sustainable livelihoods, and community infrastructure development reach over 3.4 million people in 2315 villages throughout 18 Indian states each year.
3. Shiv Nadar
This year’s third-richest person is the co-founder of HCL, which has a net worth of $31 billion.
HCL Enterprise, a US$10.8 billion worldwide enterprise with approximately 187,000 people operating in 50 countries, was founded by Shiv Nadar. He is also Chairman Emeritus and Strategic Advisor to the Board of HCL Technologies, the Group’s third-largest IT services company in India. Nadar is regarded as one of India’s computing and information technology pioneers.
HCL has ridden the waves of the evolving IT landscape for 45 years under his leadership. Since 1976, it has been at the forefront of every technological advancement. HCL began as a hardware company, producing its first indigenous computers and presenting them to the Indian market. However, it has since grown into a more comprehensive software services company. HCL is one of the few worldwide IT organisations formed in the 1970s that has survived today.
Nadar has consistently recognised that successful institution building is contingent on forming result-oriented collaborations and creating new knowledge throughout his career. He led HCL to include several beneficial joint ventures and alliances that assisted the company’s growth as a global technology company. HCL Technologies today has one of the most extensive IT Engineering and R&D divisions in the world.
Nadar began his career in a prestigious DCM management trainee programme. He met the folks with whom he later founded HCL at a Delhi barsati, which was similar to a garage start-up, with the strong notion that the microprocessor would alter the world.
Nadar attributes his achievement to the education and scholarships he received as a child. He has always believed that access to high-quality education is the most potent force for change, so he founded the philanthropic Shiv Nadar Foundation in 1994. Nadar’s experience constructing a world-class company, such as HCL, is heavily used by the Foundation. It aspires to establish revolutionary educational institutions that will continue to affect and nurture its youth for decades. To this end, the Shiv Nadar Foundation has established six institutions that span the academic spectrum and strive to address the issue of educational quality, build long-term relationships, and have a strong research focus.
Nadar will have spent US$ 988 million through the Foundation by 2020, directly benefitting over 34,000 students. However, the Foundation’s ultimate goal is to educate the next generation of leaders in symbiotic growth ideas so that every one of them might aspire to make a slight change that has a significant multiplier effect. The Shiv Nadar Foundation’s influence may now be seen in the aspirations of deserving students who began their journeys from low, geographically remote beginnings and are currently pursuing their dreams in India and other countries.
Nadar has won numerous awards and medals in appreciation of his pioneering contribution in business and philanthropy in India and worldwide, the most famous of which is the Padma Bhushan from the President of India in 2008.
4. Radhakishan Damani
Radhakishan S. Damani, the founder of DMart and an Indian billionaire investor and businessman, is an Indian billionaire investor and businessman. His money is also managed through Bright Star Investments Limited, his investment firm. He was ranked #98 richest person globally by Bloomberg Billionaire Index on August 19, 2021.
Damani grew up in a Mumbai single-room apartment with a Marwari family. Radhakishan Damani enrolled at the University of Mumbai to study commerce but dropped out after a year. Damani abandoned his ball-bearing company and became a stock market broker and investor after his father, who worked on Dalal Street, died. In the 1990s, he made money by short-selling equities inflated illegally by Harshad Mehta. After HDFC Bank went public in 1995, Damani was the largest individual shareholder. After the Harshad Mehta Scam made headlines in 1992, he witnessed a significant increase in his earnings due to short-selling profits.
He ran an Apna Bazaar, a cooperative department store, franchise in Nerul in 1999 but was “unconvinced” by its business approach. In 2000, he left the stock market to launch his hypermarket chain, DMart, with the first store opening in Powai in 2002. In 2010, the chain had 25 locations; after that, the company increased and went public in 2017.
He now owns 234 DMart locations in India. Damani maintains a modest profile and offers few interviews. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, an Indian billionaire, was also taught his stock trading techniques.
Damani is also a shareholder in several businesses, including VST Industries and cement producer India Cements. Damani invested in Andhra Paper for a 1% share. Damani also purchased a 15% share in India Cements in May 2020, bringing his total stake in India Cements to 19.89%. Damani’s investment portfolio consists of 6 stocks, with a total value of Rs 1,02,077 crore (about US$13 billion) in 2021.
5. Cyrus Poonawalla
Cyrus S. Poonawalla, born in 1941, is an Indian businessman and the chairman and managing director(MD) of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group, which includes the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker. He was placed number 5 on Fortunes’ India wealthy list in 2021 with a net worth of $19 billion.
Poonwalla established the Serum Institute of India in 1966 and grew it to become the world’s largest vaccine maker (by doses). Serum manufactures roughly 1.5 billion doses of vaccines per year, including those for measles, polio, and the flu.
Poonwalla was raised in a Parsi household. Soli Poonawala, his father, was a horse breeder. His wife, Villoo Poonawalla, died in 2010. He is now the CEO of India’s Serum Institute. Poonawalla, in collaboration with Naum Koen, suggested delivering Ukraine with 100 thousand doses of the measles vaccine for free vaccination in May 2019.
6. Lakshmi Mittal
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, an Indian steel billionaire, located in the United Kingdom, was born on June 15, 1950. Mittal grew up in a Marwadi Hindu family. From 1957 to 1964, he attended Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya in Calcutta. He earned a first-class B.Com degree from St. Xavier’s College, connected with the University of Calcutta. Lakshmi Mittal is the Executive Chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, and Aperam, a stainless steel firm. He owns 38 per cent of ArcelorMittal and a 20 per cent investment in Queens Park Rangers of the English Football League.
Forbes named him the world’s third wealthiest person in 2005, making him the first Indian national to be in the top ten on the publication’s annual list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. Forbes ranked him as the world’s sixth-richest person in 2011, but he fell to 82nd place in March 2015. In Forbes’ 2015 “Most Powerful People” list, he is ranked “57th most powerful person” out of 72 people. His daughter, Vanisha Mittal’s wedding, was the second most expensive in history.
He has been a member of Goldman Sachs’ board of directors since 2008. He serves on the executive committee of the World Steel Association. Lakshmi Mittal is a member of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries’ Global CEO Council, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Investment Council, the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, and the European Round Table Industrialists. He was selected “Business Person” by The Sunday Times in 2006, “Person of the Year” by the Financial Times, and “International Newsmaker of the Year” by Time magazine in 2005. He was named to Time magazine’s “Time 100” list in 2007.
7. Savitri Devi Jindal
Savitri Devi Jindal (born March 20, 1950) is an Indian politician and businesswoman. She was the emeritus chairperson of the O.P. Jindal Group and served as Agroha’s Maharaja Agrasen Medical College president.
Jindal was born in the Assamese town of Tinsukia. She married Om Prakash Jindal, the founder of the Jindal Group, a steel and power company. Jindal was a Haryana Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) member from the Hisar constituency and a minister in the Haryana government.
In the 2014 Haryana assembly elections, she was defeated for the seat. After her husband, O.P. Jindal died in a helicopter mishap in 2005; she became the chairperson. She belongs to the INC political party and is the richest woman in India and the 16th richest Indian in 2016, with a net worth of $4.0 billion; she was also the 453rd richest person in the world in 2016. Savitri Jindal is the world’s sixth-richest mother and supports her husband’s public work.
Savitri Jindal was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in 2005 from the Hissar constituency, previously held by her late husband, Om Prakash Jindal.
She was previously the Minister of State for Revenue and Disaster Management, Consolidation, Rehabilitation, and Housing and the Minister of State for Urban Local Bodies and Housing in the previous cabinet.
Following her appointment as CEO, the company’s revenue doubled. With a Haryana heritage and history, she served as a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly and held the position of Minister of Power till 2010. The O.P. Jindal Group was created in 1952 by O.P. Jindal, an engineer by profession. It evolved into a monster in the steel, power, mining, oil, and gas industries. Each of her four sons, Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan, and Naveen Jindal, is in control of one of the company’s four divisions. Jindal Steels is the country’s third-largest steelmaker.
8. Uday Kotak
Uday Suresh Kotak is an Indian billionaire banker and the executive vice-chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank. He was born on March 15, 1959.
Kotak grew up in a Gujarati joint-family home with 60 people living under one roof and sharing a kitchen. Initially, the family was involved in a combined trade. “Capitalism at work and Socialism at home,” he dubbed it. Cricket and playing the sitar were two of his favourite pastimes. He revealed in a 2014 interview with NDTV that he was no longer interested in playing the sitar. His aptitude for mathematics affected his professional decision. Sydenham College awarded him a bachelor’s degree, while Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies awarded him a masters degree in management studies in 1982.
Following his MBA, Kotak started Kotak Capital Management Finance Ltd. From a seed capital of less than US$80,000 borrowed from relatives and friends, he grew a bill-discounting start-up into a financial services conglomerate with assets of US$19 billion and the second-largest scheduled commercial bank by market capitalisation in India with over 1250 branches.
After sealing a $2.4 billion acquisition in November 2014 for rival ING Vysya Bank, partially owned by Dutch financial services giant ING, Kotak almost doubled his wealth in 2014.
In 2015, Kotak forayed into the general insurance market, partnering with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel to launch a small payments bank.
Kotak has lowered his share in the Kotak Mahindra Bank to 30% for the time being, as the RBI requires him to reduce it to 20%.
He was said to be one of the highest-paid CEOs of any Indian bank in August 2019, with monthly compensation of 27 lakh (US$36,000).
For the 2020-21 fiscal year, he was elected President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Kotak chose to start his own business in the early 1980s when India was still a closed country with slow economic growth. He turned down a tempting employment offer from a multinational. Later, he expanded his business into numerous financial services, creating a solid presence in bill discounting, stockbroking, investment banking, vehicle loan, life insurance, and mutual funds. Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. received a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India on March 22, 2003, making it the first company in India’s corporate history.
As of April 2021, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index assessed his net worth to be US$14.8 billion. Mr Kotak and Goldman Sachs dissolved their 14-year association in 2006 when Goldman Sachs sold Mr Kotak a 25% ownership in two businesses for $72 million.
9. Pallonji Mistry
Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry (born 1929) is the wealthiest Irish person and the chairman of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. He is an Indian-born Irish billionaire construction mogul.
Pallonji Mistry was born into a Gujarati Parsi family.
Shapoorji Pallonji, the Mistrys’ construction firm, is a significant player in the industry. The Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, the Grindlays Bank, the Standard Chartered Bank, the State Bank of India, and the Reserve Bank of India was founded by Shapoorji, the group patriarch and Pallonji’s father, the group patriarch Fort region.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth is expected to be US$28.0 billion. He is the greatest individual shareholder in India’s largest private conglomerate, Tata Group, with an 18.4 per cent investment in Tata Sons. The Tata philanthropic Allied Trusts owns a 66 per cent controlling interest in Tata Group.
Pallonji Mistry was honoured with the Padma Bhushan for his contributions to commerce and industry.
Pallonji renounced his Indian citizenship in 2003 to become an Irish citizen “based on his marriage to an Irish-born national,” Pat “Patsy” Perin Dubash, who was raised in Dublin’s Hatch Street Nursing House in September 1939. He is still residing in Mumbai. Mistry has a 200-acre (0.81 km2) stud farm and a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) residence in Pune, India, contributing to the family’s interest in Ireland.
10. Kumar Birla
Kumar Birla, born on June 14 1967, is an Indian industrialist and philanthropist who is the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. He is also the chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Management. According to Forbes, as of January 11, 2022, he has a net worth of $17.5 billion.
Kumar Birla, a fourth-generation member of the Rajasthani Birla family, was born in Kolkata and raised in Mumbai with Aditya Vikram Birla and Rajashree Birla, as well as his younger sister Vasavadatta Birla. He received his high school diploma from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Mumbai’s H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. Later, he attended London Business School and received a Master of Business Administration degree from London in 1992. In addition, he is an honorary fellow at LBS. He graduated from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India as a chartered accountant (ICAI).
After his father, Aditya Vikram Birla, died in 1995, Birla took over as chairman of the Aditya Birla Group at 28. The Group’s annual turnover has climbed from US$3.33 billion in 1995 to US$48.3 billion in 2019. During his tenure as chairman, the Group’s annual turnover has increased from US$3.33 billion in 1995 to US$48.3 billion in 2019. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Birla’s net worth was lowered to $6 billion between 2017 and 2019. The leading cause of this loss is Vodafone Idea Ltd’s “financial difficulty,” as well as the decline in “shares of iconic firms that produce chemicals, metals, and cement.”
He is an honorary fellow of the London Business School and serves on the Asia Pacific Advisory Board of the London Business School.
