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Though the economy managed to scrape through the currency crisis that followed the demonetisation of high-value notes last November, some 11 Indian billionaires have gone missing from Hurun Global Rich List since then.
Interestingly, eight of the billionaires missing from the list are from Bengaluru, the IT capital of the country. Prominent among them are Flipkart promoters Sachin and Binny Bansals, because of write-down in value of their company by global financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley and T Rowe Price.
The total wealth of India’s top 132 businessmen increased 16 per cent this year to ₹26.9 lakh crore ($392 billion), roughly 22 per cent of India’s GDP.
Anas Rahman Junaid, Managing Director, Hurun Report India, said it was a tough year for India because of disruptive government policies such as demonetisation.
However, on a long-term perspective, such transparent currency economics will have a positive impact for the entrepreneurs, he said.
Newcomers The government’s ongoing drive towards cashless economy helped Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma with wealth of ₹10,300 crore make a debut in the billionaire’s list along with Acharya Balkrishna, Managing Director of Patanjali Ayurved, and Balkrishan Goenka of Welspun with asset of ₹24,900 crore and ₹7,500 crore respectively. There were 27 new entrants in the list this year.
With a fortune of ₹1.75 lakh crore, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries, retained his numero uno position for the sixth consecutive year and was the only Indian to feature among the top 50 global wealthiest people.
SP Hinduja and family and Dilip Shanghvi with asset of ₹1.01 lakh crore and ₹99,000 crore respectively, followed Ambani in the list. Savitri Jindal, promoter of JSW Group topped the female billionaires consecutively with a net worth of ₹31,500 crore.
Women billionaires Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the only female entrepreneur from India to feature in the global self-made women billionaires list, saw an 89 per cent increase in her fortunes to ₹12,900 crore. The wealth in China seems to be more widespread than in India with the former producing 608 billionaires with average wealth of $2.7 billion against India’s average wealth of $3 billion.
In China there are 14 individuals having a networth of $10 billion compared to five in India.
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