Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has once again reclaimed the first position on the 2023 Forbes list of India’s 100 Richest, with a net worth of $92 billion. The combined net worth of the country’s top 100 wealthiest people, however, remained unchanged at $799 billion. Forbes India stated that while India is on high after hosting the G20 Summit in New Delhi and becoming the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon which led to a 14 per cent rise in stock market, the jump was tempered by a weaker rupee.
Mukesh Ambani surpassed Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani who slipped to the second position after the impact from the damaging report published by Hindenburg Research and later by OCCRP. Despite some recovery, according to Forbes, Adani’s net worth plummeted by a substantial $82 billion to $68 billion, marking the most significant decline both in dollar value and percentage terms. Currently, the net worth of Gautam Adani & family is at $68 billion. Gautam Adani had, last year, surpassed Ambani as India’s wealthiest.
In the list, billionaire tycoon and the founder of HCL Technologies, Shiv Nadar is placed at the third spot with a wealth of $29.3 billion. He was followed by Savitri Jindal in third position with a net worth of $24 billion, as per Forbes list.
Meanwhile, Inder Jaisinghani experienced the most remarkable wealth increase in percentage terms. His wires and cables company, Polycab India, greatly benefited from the accelerating electrification efforts, nearly doubling his family’s fortune to $6.4 billion. Ramesh and Rajeev Juneja, the Pharma brothers, enjoyed a 64 per cent boost following the successful May listing of their company, Mankind Pharma.
The new entrants to the India’s 100 Richest list included Renuka Jagtiani, the chairwoman of Landmark Group, a Dubai-headquartered retailing giant, making her debut in the list with a fortune of $4.8 billion. She took the spot of her husband Micky Jagtiani, who died in May.
The Dani family, heirs to the late patriarch Ashwin Dani of Asian Paints, also made their appearance on the list at number 22 with a net worth of $8 billion.
The third new addition to the list is garment exporter KP Ramasamy, founder and chairman of KPR Mill. Srichand Hinduja, the eldest of four brothers, died in May and that fortune is now listed under the Hinduja family. He secured the 100th position with a wealth of $2.3 billion.
Among the seven returnees to the list this year is Ranjan Pai at 86th position with a net worth of $2.75 billion, who cashed out $1 billion from selling part of his stake in hospital chain Manipal Health Enterprises to Singapore’s Temasek.
Notable among the eight drop-offs are ed tech couple Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, whose firm Byju’s saw its valuation marked down drastically amid myriad challenges.
Meanwhile, Naazneen Karmali, Asia Wealth Editor and India Editor of Forbes Asia, said, “India is riding high and is considered a hot spot by global investors. That buoyancy has made the elite club of India’s 100 Richest even more exclusive this year, with the minimum net worth to make the cutoff rising to a record $2.3 billion.”
Here are the top 10 richest in India:
Mukesh Ambani: US$92 billion
Gautam Adani: $68 billion
Shiv Nadar: $29.3 billion
Savitri Jindal: $24 billion
Radhakishan Damani: $23 billion
Cyrus Poonawalla: $20.7 billion
Hinduja Family: $20 billion
Dilip Shanghvi: $19 billion
Kumar Birla: $17.5 billion
Shapoor Mistry & Family: $16.9 billion
The list, Forbes India said, was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and India’s regulatory agencies. The ranking lists family fortunes, including those shared among extended families such as the Bajaj and Godrej families. Public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of September 22.