Latest revision as of 04:39, 14 July 2023

[edit] Billionaires

[edit] Knight Frank report

Prabhakar Sinha, February 25, 2021: The Times of India

Beating Covid blues, number of Indian billionaires increases

NEW DELHI: Number of high net worth individuals (HNWI), having wealth of over $1 million, and ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWI), with wealth of more than $30 million, declined by 8% and 2% to 3.5 lakh and 6,884 respectively in 2020 due to Covid-19.

However, the number of billionaires has increased to 113 in 2020 from 104 in 2019, said international property consultancy firm Knight Frank in its ‘The Wealth Report 2021’. The billionaire club in India is also expected to increase by 43% to 162 by 2025. The growth will outpace global average growth of 24% and Asian average of 38% during this period. The report projected that the number of HNWI is likely to increase by 75% to 6.1 lakh by 2025.

The number of UHNWI is likely to rise by 63% to 11,198 by 2025, the report said. Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru have high concentration of wealth with 920, 375 and 238 UHNWIs respectively.

“With the economic operability reaching high levels of its efficiency post the pandemic, and as India will be striding to make an entry into the $5-trillion club in next few years, new emerging economic opportunities will help bring lucrative wealth creation assets, which will add new wealthy individuals in the country,” said Shishir Baijal, CMD, Knight Frank India.

The report also studied depth of pockets needed to join the wealthiest 1% in selected countries and territories. In Asian region, Singapore has the highest entry threshold with $2.9 million needed to join the top 1% club. The entry point for India to enter the 1% wealthy club is $60,000.

[edit] India has added one billionaire every 10 days

March 3, 2021: The Times of India

India's wealthiest (net worth in $ bn);
Top new billionaires; Prominent dropouts, 2020
From: March 3, 2021: The Times of India

India has added one billionaire every 10 days in 2020 amid the pandemic. This was made possible by rising stock market valuation, which increased the number of worldwide billionaires by 412 to 3,228.

There are now 209 Indianorigin billionaires, of which 177 are Indian residents. The total list, which continues to be topped by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, has 50 fresh additions and 10 dropouts. The additions include Arvindkumar Poddar of Balkrishna Industries, Bawri family of Macleods Pharmaceuticals, B Parthasaradhi Reddy of Hetero Drugs, Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha, Pankaj Munjal of Hero Cycles and T S Kalyanaraman of Kalyan Jewellers. The prominent dropouts are B R Shetty from UAE, Ritesh Agarwal of Oyo Rooms and Kishore Biyani of Future Group.

Ambani, 63, who strung a slew of investment deals into his telecom business, saw his wealth surge 24% to $83 billion. Reliance, India’s largest exporter, accounts for 8% of the country’s exports and 5% of India’s total revenues from customs and excise duty. Adani saw his wealth almost double to $32 billion on the back of Adani Green Energy growing to a $20-billion valuation.

“Despite the disruption caused by Covid-19, this year has seen the biggest wealth increase of the last decade,” said Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf. “A stock markets boom and flurry of new listings have minted eight new dollar billionaires a week for the past year. The world has never seen this much wealth created in just one year, much more than perhaps could have been expected for a year so badly disrupted by Covid-19,” he added.

The rise in wealth of the rich has been on the back of rise in value of financial assets — shareholdings in the companies they own. The Nasdaq was up 42% last year followed by China’s Shenzhen (40%), sensex (23.4%) and Japan’s Nikkei (22.9%). China added 256 new billionaires to become the first country in the world to top1,000 ‘known’ dollar billionaires with 1,056, more than the combined total of the next three countries of the US, India and Germany. In five years, China has added 490 billionaires, compared with 160 in the US.

“Asia has, for the first time in perhaps hundreds of years, more billionaires than the rest of the world combined. Wealth creation is moving to Asia,” Hoogewerf said. He added that electric vehicles, e-commerce, blockchain and biotech have been the fastest growing industries of the past year.

World’s richest person is Elon Musk who, with a wealth of $197 billion, is also new to the top-10 list. Jeff Bezos with $189 billion has moved to the second spot, while luxury giant Bernard Arnault of LVMH with $114 billion is at third place ahead of Bill Gates ($110 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg ($101 billion). An outlier in terms of sector is the ‘Bottled Water King’ Zhong Shanshan who became the first Chinese to break into the Hurun Global Rich List Top 10 with a $85-billion fortune.

[edit] Hurun’s Top 10

[edit] Top performing sectors

December 25, 2020: The Times of India

In spite of the challenges faced by the industry due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the combined wealth of India's richest people grew twice as fast as net market capitalisation of all Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) listed companies in the year 2020, revealed a report by Hurun India.

The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020 shows that India's richest people possess a cumulative wealth of $823 billion, which is about one-third of its GDP (gross domestic product). It is also more than the combined GDP of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bhutan.

Here’s a look at some of the top wealth creators of the country in the year 2020:

1 Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani topped the list for the 9th consecutive year by registering a whopping 73 per cent rise in his wealth to Rs 6,58,400 crore.

Ambani gained Rs 90 crore per hour since the lockdown was imposed by the government in March.

Just after the lockdown was announced, Ambani’s wealth dropped by 28 per cent to Rs 3,50,000 crore. However, a series of fund-raising activities and strategic investments from global giants like Facebook and Google increased his wealth by 84 per cent over the next four months.

Ambani is also the only Indian billionaire to feature in top 15 of the global rich list 2020 prepared by Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

According to Anas Rahman Junaid, managing director and chief researcher of Hurun India, Ambani's wealth is bigger than the combined wealth of the next five people in the list, that is, Hinduja brothers, Shiva Nadar, Gautam Adani and Azim Premji.

2 Hinduja brothers

With a wealth of Rs 1,43,700 crore, Hinduja Brothers occupied the second spot in the list. However, their valuation witnessed a sharp 23 per cent drop during the year. This can be majorly due to lackluster performance of their flagship companies like IndusInd Bank, Gulf Oil and GOCL Corporation Limited.

The Hinduja family are among the world’s richest. The bulk of their fortune derives from Hinduja Group, the closely held conglomerate that today has investments spanning finance, media and health care in almost 40 countries.

3 Shiv Nadar

HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar climbed up two places to bag the third spot in Hurun India’s rich list with a total net worth of Rs 1,41,700 crore. In July, Nadar stepped down as the chairman of HCL and his daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra took over as the company’s chairperson.

Interestingly, Roshni topped the Hurun India and Kotak Wealth list of the richest women in the country in 2020 with a net worth of Rs 54,850 crore.

4 Gautam Adani

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani's wealth grew by 48 per cent compared to that of last year as he moved up two places to the fourth rank. Backed by the performance of Adani Green, the company’s chairman found a place in the top 5 for the first time. In August, Adani Green became the first Adani Group company to cross the Rs 1 lakh crore market cap.

It has won the bid to operate, manage and develop six Airport Authority of India (AAI) airports, namely Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram for 50 years.

5 Azim Premji

Wipro chief Azim Premji moved down two places to the fifth spot with total wealth of Rs 1,14,400 crore.

The company’s stock has rallied about 70 per cent since the appointment of Thierry Delaporte as new chief executive officer (CEO). The increase in share price is most among India’s four largest outsourcing firms during the period.

6 Cyrus Poonawalla

Serum Institute of India (SII) founder Cyrus Poonawala bagged the sixth position as his wealth rose by 6 per cent during the current year. SII -- world's largest vaccine-maker -- is working closely with Oxford University and multiple institutions to manufacture and distribute Covid-19 vaccines.

Poonawalla made his appearance for the first time in the Hurun India rich list in June 2020. At present, his total net worth is about Rs 94,300 crore.

7 Radhakishan Damani

Founder of Avenue Supermarts Radhakishan Damani made his debut into the top 10 in IIFL Wealth Hurun India rich list with a net worth of Rs 87,200 crore.

Since its IPO in 2017, Avenue Supermarts’ share price has increased by more than 250 per cent and his rank in the list shot up by 23 places. Damani, who is also a revered investor, was in the news for buying 2.75 per cent of India Cements through an open market transaction.

8 Uday Kotak

Uday Kotak, the founder managing director and promoter of Kotak Mahindra Bank, is the eighth richest Indian. His total wealth during the year would be about Rs 87,000 crore.

However, on account of 5.1 per cent loss in first quarter (Q1) of the year, the bank’s wealth registered a drop of 8 per cent or Rs 7,100 crore as compared to last year.

9 Dilip Shanghvi

Backed by a 22 per cent rise in share price of pharmaceutical major Sun Pharma, Dilip Shanghvi’s wealth increased by 17 per cent or Rs 12,500 crore to Rs 84,000 crore. Sun Pharma’s share price decreased by 25 per cent when lockdown started and registered a strong v-shaped recovery, and gained back a whopping 60 per cent over the last 6 months.

10 Cyrus & Shapoor Pallonji

The Pallonji brothers, Cyrus and Shapoor Pallonji, shared the tenth spot in the list with a total net worth of Rs 76,000 crore each.

The SP Group's biggest asset is an 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons. In September, the Mistrys decided to sell their stake in Tata Sons saying that a separation of interests would best serve all stakeholder groups.

[edit] People of Indian origin

[edit] USA

7 Indian-Americans in Forbes’ rich list, September 9, 2020: The Times of India

Seven Indian-Americans have figured in Forbes’ list of 400 richest Americans, topped by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of $179 billion, for the third year in a row.

The seven Indian-Americans that featured in the list were cybersecurity firm ZScaler CEO Jay Chaudhry, Symphony Technology Group founder and chairman Romesh Wadhwani, co-founder and CEO of online home goods retailer Wayfair Niraj Shah, Silicon Valley VC firm Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla, Sherpalo Ventures managing partner Kavitark Ram Shriram, IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal and Workday CEO &co-founder Aneel Bhusri.

The richest people in America saw their overall wealth swell despite the coronavirus pandemic’s devastated impact on the US economy. AGENCIES

[edit] Technology billionaires

Gadgets Now Bureau, January 1, 2021: The Times of India

These are India’s top 15 tech billionaires

The year 2020 was one of the most challenging for businesses across the world, and it's been no different in India. However, despite the crippling pandemic and the consequent headwinds, IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich Listers’ wealth saw a rise. The wealth of the super rich on the list grew almost twice as fast as the net market capitalization growth of all the companies listed on BSE. The India Rich List 2020 saw the addition of 161 new faces. As the year 2021 begins, we take a look at the top 15 richest tech billionaires on the list. Read on to know their names

Shiv Nadar, founder, HCL Enterprise

HCL founder Shiv Nadar tops the list with a net wealth of Rs 1,41,700 crore.

Azim Premji, founder chairman, Wipro

At No. 2 on the list is Wipro founder chairman Azim Premji. His net wealth as per the report is Rs 1,14,400 crore.

Jay Chaudhry, CEO, chairman and founder, Zscaler

The third richest tech billionaire on the list is Jay Chaudhry, the CEO, chairman and founder of cloud computing company Zscaler. His total wealth as per the list is Rs 65,800 crore.

Sunil Mittal, founder and chairman Bharti Enterprises

At No. 4 is Bharti Enterprises’ founder and chairman Sunil Mittal with a network of Rs 25,500 crore.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO, Paytm

With a net wealth of Rs 23,000 crore, Paytm CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma ranks at No. 5 on the list. His wealth increased by 13% in 2020 as compared to 2019, as per Hurun report.

Byju Raveendran, founder, Byju’s

At No. 5 is Byju Raveendran. His wealth witnessed 113% rise in 2020 as compared to 2019, his total wealth as per the report is Rs 20,400 crore.

S Gopalkrishnan, former Infosys CEO

S Gopalkrishnan is one of the co-founders of Infosys. According to the India Infoline Wealth and The Hurun Institute report, his total wealth stands at Rs 18,100 crore.

NR Narayana Murthy, Infosys co-founder

Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy’s net wealth is Rs 16,400 crore.

Divyank Turakhia, founder, Media.Net

Divyank Turakhia is the founder of global advertising company Media.Net, his net wealth as per the report is Rs 14,000 crore.

Amod Malviya, co-founder, Udaan

Amod Malviya is one of the co-founders of Udaan, the Bangalore-based B2B e-commerce platform. His net wealth increased by 274% to Rs 13,000 crore in 2020.

Sujeet Kumar, co-founder, Udaan

Sujeet Kumar too is co-founder Udaan. His net wealth, as per the Hurun Institute list is Rs 13,000 crore.

Vaibhav Gupta, Co-founder, Udaan

Another co-founder of Udaan, Vaibhav Gupta’s net wealth in 2020 stands at Rs 13,000 crore.

Nandan Nilekani, non-executive chairman, Infosys

Nandan Nilekani is one of the co-founders and non-executive chairman of Infosys. His total wealth stands at Rs 12,000 crore.

Radha Vembu, product manager, Zoho

Zoho’s owner Radha Vembu is next on the list with a total wealth of Rs 12,000 crore. The Chennai-based company is among the top five business e-mail providers globally.

SD Shibulal co-founder, Infosys

Another Infosys co-founder on the list is SD Shibulal. His net wealth is Rs 12,000 crore.