Forbes India Rich List 2019 is out and Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani has once again topped the list for the 12th consecutive year with a net worth of $51.4 billion, according to Forbes India.
Ambani’s telecom arm of Reliance Industries, Jio, helped him add $4.1 billion to his net worth, as it became one of India’s biggest mobile carriers with 340 million subscribers.
Chairman of Adani Group Gautam Adani jumped eight positions to claim the second spot with a net worth of $15.7 billion.
Adani secured permission to start work on an Australian coal mine in June after waiting for nine years. He also forayed into new businesses from airports to data centres, Forbes India reported.
Hinduja brothers bagged the third spot on the list with net worth of $15.6 billion. Pallonji Mistry is ranked fourth with $15 billion.
Uday Kotak's wealth grew $4 billion, propelling him into the top five for the first time. Kotak Mahindra Bank's shares surged 39 percent in the last one year, thus boosting his earnings.
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Six New Faces on the List
Following Kotak on the list are Shiv Nadar ($14.4 billion) , Radhakishan Damani ($14.3 billion), Godrej family ($12 billion), Lakshmi Mittal ($10.5 billion) and Kumar Mangalam Birla ($9.6 billion).
Six new members have made the list this year, including Byju Raveendran, founder of edtech unicorn Byju’s, Manohar Lal and Madhusudan Agarwal of Haldiram Snacks and Rajesh Mehra, whose family owns Jaquar brand of bathroom fittings.
Samprada Singh, founder of Alkem Laboratories, died in July and his fortune is now listed under his family.
According to Forbes India, total wealth of this year's 100 richest shrank 8 percent from a year ago to $452 billion. However, more than a third of that drop was due to tech tycoon Azim Premji, who donated his fortune in March this year and, as a result, dropped to 17 from the second spot.
(With inputs from Forbes India.)
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