For the tenth straight year, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani has emerged as India’s wealthiest person, as his net worth swelled to $38 billion (nearly ₹2.5 lakh crore). The wealth of India’s 100 richest rose by 26 per cent despite economic hiccups.
Wipro’s Azim Premji was a distant second with a net worth of $19 billion, moving up two places from last year, while Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi slipped from his earlier second place to the ninth ($12.1 billion) on Forbes magazine’s annual India Rich List 2017’.
Forbes said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “economic experiments” barely affected India’s billionaires while none gained more than oil-and-gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani, who cemented his decade-long hold on the top slot by adding a staggering $15.3 billion (67 per cent) to his last year’s wealth to become one of Asia’s top five richest.
Gautam Adani, has moved up to 10th position ($11 billion), from 13th rank last year, as his networth rose from $6.3 billion.
Patanjali Ayurved’s Acharya Balkrishna, known as a close associate of yoga guru Ramdev, made a big jump from 48th place last year to 19th, with a net worth of $6.55 billion (about ₹43,000 crore).
“India’s turbo-charged economy sputtered in the quarter ended in June as it grew at a three-year low of 5.7 per cent, due to the aftershocks of last November’s demonetisation and uncertainties over the rollout of a nation-wide Goods and Services Tax. Despite this, the stock market scaled new heights and boosted the fortunes of the nation’s 100 richest,” it added.
The richest newcomer is cookies-and-airline tycoon Nusli Wadia (25) with a net worth of $5.6 billion.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.