 "Mukesh Ambani")
Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal, who earned dollar billionaire status last year and whose wealth has fallen with successive markdowns of their firm’s valuation, are among the 31 Indian billionaires who are out of the Hurun Global Rich — Indian billionaires report.
Eleven of the 31 have lost their billionaire status since demonetisation. Prominent among them are Gautam Thapar of Crompton Greaves, Nilima Motaparti of Divi’s Labs, Prathap C Reddy & family of Apollo Hospitals, and Nandan Nilekani, an Infosys shareholder. This list is exclusively based on the share price performance of companies after demonetisation.
However, many billionaires have seen their wealth soaring. The cumulative wealth of 132 Indian or Indian-origin billionaires is estimated to have increased to $392 billion, up 16 per cent from last year, says the report.
Twenty-seven billionaires have been added to the list this year. Of the 27 entrants, Acharya Balakrishna of Patanjali Ayurved leads the pack with wealth of $3.6 billion, followed by Nadir B Godrej and Smitha V Crishna. Patym founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma also lands on the list with $1.5 billion, though his wealth is likely to be revised upwards with Reliance Capital selling its nearly one per cent stake to Alibaba at $41 million.
Others who have seen their wealth declining after demonetisation are Salil Singhal & family of PI Industries, Chirayu R Amin & family of Alembic Pharma, B L Taparia & family of Supreme Industries, Habil Khorakiwala of Wockhardt, Prakash Chauhan & family of Parle Agro Food, Prithviraj Kothari of RiddiSiddhi Bullions, and Devendra Kumar Jain of Gujarat Fluorochemicals. Mukesh Ambani retains his position as the richest Indian, with estimated wealth of $26 billion. Ambani ranks 28 on Hurun’s Global Rich list, the only Indian in the top 50.
Sun Pharma head Dilip Shanghvi ranked third on the list, with $14 billion. He ranks 74 on Hurun’s global list of billionaires.
Divyank Turakhia is the youngest billionaire on the list, with wealth of $1.2 billion. Turakhia, aged 35, sold his company Media.net to a Chinese conglomerate at a valuation of $1 billion.
The pharmaceuticals sector leads the rich list with 21 billionaires, followed by manufacturing, technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) with 13 each. But the average wealth of billionaires in the pharmaceutical sector is lower at $3.1 billion, compared to $4.6 billion of those from the TMT sector.
Only nine individuals on the list are from the real estate sector, reflecting its sagging fortunes. Jitendra Virwani of Embassy Property Development is the new billionaire entrant to the list, with wealth of $1.29 billion.
Mumbai is home to the highest number of billionaires, 42, followed by Delhi at 21. Ahmedabad bagged third place with nine, while Bengaluru lost eight.
With five billionaires, the Godrej Group contributes the highest number of billionaires, followed by Hero Honda and Asian Paints with three each.
| NOW THAT'S RICH | ||
| India rank (Global rank in brackets) | Name | India net worth in Rs crore (Global net worth in $bn in brackets) |
| 1 (28) | Mukesh Ambani | 175,400 (26) |
| 2 (74) | S P Hinduja & family | 101,000 (14) |
| 3 (74) | Dilip Shanghvi | 99,000 (14) |
| 4 (97) | Pallonji Mistry | 82,700 (12) |
| 5 (97) | Lakshmi N Mittal | 81,800 (12) |
| 6 (97) | Shiv Nadar | 81,200 (12) |
| 7 (106) | Cyrus Poonawalla | 75,400 (11) |
| 8 (135) | Azim Premji | 66,300 (9.7) |
| 9 (138) | Uday Kotak | 49,200 (7.2) |
| 10 (207) | David Reuben | 45,600 (6.7) |
| 10 (207) | Simon Reuben | 45,600 (6.7) |
| Source: Hurun Rich List |
