These are India’s top billionaires: IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020

The year 2020 has been a challenging year for businesses. Despite the lockdown, India’s richest have managed to grow their wealth.

As per the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020, the combined wealth of India’s richest is a staggering $823bn, equating to one-third of India’s GDP and more than the combined GDP of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bhutan.

The 2020 edition has identified 828 individuals, including 40 women, with at least ₹ 1,000 crore and is spread across 111 cities, up from 94 last year. There are 162 new faces, recording a cumulative wealth growth of 20 per cent or ₹ 10 lakh crore compared to last year.

Read: LuxeBook’s top 100: Most influential movers and shakers of Indian luxury

Mukesh Ambani tops the list. He earned ₹ 90 crore per hour since the lockdown in March, taking his net value to ₹6,58,400 crore this year, an increase of ₹2,77,700 crore. He holds the title of the richest Indian for the ninth year running.

Ambani’s wealth is now bigger than the combined wealth of the next 5 in the list – the Hinduja brothers, Shiv Nadar & family, Gautam Adani & family and Azim Premji.

28 per cent of the upswing in wealth on the list has been bestowed by Mukesh Ambani, bespeaking Ambani’s meteoric success post diversifying from oil to telecom and retail. A further 21 per cent of the additional wealth has been generated by pharma, mainly on the back of the rise in healthcare spends and a realigned priority towards personal healthcare stimulated by the Covid-19, shared  Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India

Today, India has 179 dollar billionaires, three times the number in 2013.

Here are the top 10 billionaires.

1. Mukesh Ambani
Wealth: ₹658,400 crore (73 per cent growth since 2019)
Company: Reliance Industries

2. Hinduja brothers
Wealth: ₹143,700 crore (23 per cent decline since 2019)
Company: Hinduja

3. Shiv Nadar & family
Wealth: ₹141,700 (34 per cent increase since 2019)
Company: HCL

4. Gautam Adani & family
Wealth: ₹140,200 crore (48 per cent increase since 2019)
Company: Adani

5. Azim Premji
Wealth: ₹114,400 crore (2 per cent decline since 2019)
Company: Wipro

6. Cyrus S Poonawalla
Wealth: ₹94,300 crore (6 per cent increase since 2019)
Company: Serum Institute of India

7. Radhakishan Damani & family*
Wealth: ₹87,200 (56 per cent increase since 2019)
Company: Avenue Supermarts
*Damani is a first timer in the top 10 wealthiest Indians list

8. Uday Kotak
Wealth: ₹87,000 (8 per cent decline since 2019)
Company: Kotak Mahindra Bank

9. Dilip Shanghvi
Wealth: ₹84,000 (17 per cent increase since 2019)
Company: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries

10. Cyrus Pallonji Mistry
Wealth: ₹76,000 (1 per cent decline since 2019)
Company: Shapoorji Pallonji

10. Shapoor Pallonji Mistry
Wealth: ₹76,000 (1 per cent decline since 2019)
Company: Shapoorji Pallonji

Smita V Crishna is the richest woman on the list with a wealth of ₹32,400 crores. She occupies the 28^th place in the list. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the second richest woman with a wealth of ₹31,600. Shaw, chairperson of Biocon saw a 71 per cent rise in her wealth this year.

In terms of industry, pharmaceutical companies continue to rule followed by Chemicals & Petrochemicals, and Software & Services in second and third position respectively. Automobile & Auto Components retains the fourth spot while the wealth of jewellery entrepreneurs have increased this year, making sure it secures the fifth spot.

64 per cent of the people on the list are self-made entrepreneurs while 90 per cent of them run family-owned businesses, indicating the success of family-run entrepreneurship in India.

The list also features self-made founders and professional managers, inheritors, CEOs, NRIs, investors, cashed out entrepreneurs and so on.

Read: Mukesh Ambani, the man behind most luxury brands in India, is now the 6th richest man in the world