Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Ltd., retained his position as the richest Indian on Forbes list for a continuous fourteenth year, adding $4 billion to his wealth in the last year. He has been topping the list since 2008.
The list, which was released on Thursday, October 7, also estimated his current net worth to be $92.7 billion. He was followed by Gautam Adani and Shiv Nadar, who held the second and third positions on the list respectively.
Gautam Adani, Chairman and Founder of the Adani Group, has retained his position on the Forbes list this year, coming in second with an estimated net worth of $74.8 billion. In the last one year, Gautam Adani has more than tripled his wealth which was reported to be $25.2 billion in 2020. Forbes has unveiled that Gautam Adani’s gains constituted for over one-fifth of the total wealth increase among the hundred richest Indians on the list.
Moreover, the wealth gap between the top two position holders has been rapidly declining. While in 2020, the wealth gap between Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani was more than $63 billion, the gap has now been reduced to $17.9 billion as Adani added $49.5 billion to his net worth this year.
Other top 10 rankers include HCL Founder and Chairman Shiv Nadar who came in at number three with a recorded wealth of $31 billion, and D’Mart retail chain founder Radhakrishna Damani who retained the fourth position with a net worth of $29.4 billion. Serum Institute of India’s Founder Cyrus Poonawalla stepped up a rank to enter the top 5 in 2021 with a fortune of $19 billion.
Meanwhile, Savitri Jindal, Chairperson Emeritus of OP Jindal Group, has entered the top 10 on the Forbes list for the first time, making her the richest Indian woman with a net worth of $18 billion.
Forbes’ analysis disclosed that the hundred richest Indians grew their combined wealth to a total of $775 billion, adding $257 billion in 2021, which is a 50 per cent increase from its 2020 listing. A total of 61 billionaires added at least one billion USD or more to their existing assets, while more than 80 per cent of those on the Forbes list saw an increase in their wealth.