Adani's wealth jumped the most in 2021, Nykaa CEO newest billionaire: Hurun

RIL chief sees 24% spike in wealth to $103 bn; Gautam Adani takes second spot

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, has registered a 24 per cent rise in his wealth to $103 billion and retained the wealthiest Asian title for the second consecutive year, according to 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List. With a 153 per cent increase in wealth, Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group, has become the second-richest Asian and is the biggest gainer in the world in 2021 by adding $49 billion to his wealth last year, adding Rs 6,000 crore every week in 2021. This is more than the “net addition of wealth by the top three global billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault”.
 

The report said in terms of the number of billionaires who have added $1 billion or more over the last year, India comfortably occupies third rank on the list. Indian billionaires have cumulatively gained $159 billion over last year.  
 

“The 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List is aimed at demonstrating the positioning of Indian wealth creation when compared to the rest of the world. The list evidences that India is a rocket ship when it comes to wealth creation. For instance, India ranks third based not only on the number of billionaires, but also in terms of the number of billionaires who have added at least a billion dollars to their wealth,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, managing director and chief researcher, Hurun India.
 

“Over the past 10 years, Indian billionaires added around $700 billion to their cumulative wealth. This is equivalent to Switzerland’s gross domestic product (GDP) and twice the GDP of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)!” he said.
 

With 215 billionaires now living in India and 58 new additions to the list, India is the third-largest billionaire-producing nation in the world, the report said.
 

“India has 18 per cent of the world’s population and 8 per cent of the world’s ‘known’ billionaires, up from 50 per cent compared to last year. Of the 34 living outside of India, the preferred residences were the US, the UAE, and the UK,” he said.
 

“The year was also a moment of reckoning for India’s start-up ecosystem which witnessed major start-up initial public offerings (IPOs), including four companies on the Hurun Global Unicorn Index. 2021’s IPO story began with a bang but fizzled out towards the end owing to bubble concerns. Ten technology (tech) companies that listed in 2021 cumulatively lost $23 billion, or Rs 1.72 crore, since listing, resulting in a momentary pause of the tech IPO,” he added.
 

The report said with a wealth of $3.3 billion, Byju Raveendran of Byju’s, an online tutoring start-up, is the world’s third richest entrepreneur from the education sector.
 

On the other hand, with a wealth of $4.3 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia of IndiGo are the wealthiest aviation billionaires in the world.
 

Among older business families, Kumar Mangalam Birla with a wealth of $18 billion is the richest cement manufacturer in the world, while Nusli Wadia, with a wealth of $7.5 billion, is the richest biscuit maker in the world, the report said.
 

The report said with a wealth of $28 billion, Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies ranked third on the Hurun Global Rich List.
 

‘Vaccine King’ Cyrus Poonawalla of Serum Institute of India is the fourth richest in India, with a wealth of $26 billion.
 

With a wealth of $25 billion, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal of ArcelorMittal is the wealthiest Indian Immigrant.
 

Radhakishan Damani, founder of DMart, jumped 93 positions to break into the Global Top 100 for the first time with a wealth of $23 billion, the report said.
 

The report said India added 51 billionaires and occupied the third spot, comfortably ahead of the UK, which added 22 billionaires to this year’s list.
 

The richest new entrants from India are Falguni Nayar and Sanjay Nayar, promoters of Nykaa.