India’s 10 Richest Billionaires 2021 List: Forbes

Mumbai: Another Covid-19 outbreak is sweeping across India, and the total number of cases has surpassed 12 million. However, the country’s stock market has recovered from its pandemic slump to reach new highs. The total number of Indian billionaires increased from 102 last year to 140 this year, with their combined wealth nearly doubling to $596 billion.

The three richest Indians alone have gained more than $100 billion. Mukesh Ambani, who has successfully diversified his oil and gas empire into fast-growing sectors such as telecommunications and retail, has reclaimed his position as Asia’s richest person, with an estimated net worth of $84.5 billion.

Two of the top ten richest Indians make their money in healthcare, a sector that is experiencing a global boom. Cyrus Poonawalla’s Serum Institute of India, led by his 40-year-old son Adar, entered the Covid-19 vaccine race early, forging multiple partnerships and investing $800 million in the construction of a new factory.

Here are India’s 10 richest people; net worths are as of March 5, 2021:

1. Mukesh AmbaniNET WORTH: $84.5 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: DIVERSIFIED
   RESIDENCE: MUMBAI
   
   In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ambani accomplished a fund-raising feat, raising $35 billion through a series of transactions to meet his target of reducing his flagship Reliance Industries’ net debt to zero by 2021.
   He also sold a third of telecom unit Jio to marquee investors like Facebook and Google, as well as 10% of Reliance Retail to private equity firms like KKR and General Atlantic, and completed a $7.3 billion rights issue of Reliance shares.

2. Gautam Adani

   NET WORTH: $50.5 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: INFRASTRUCTURE
   RESIDENCE: AHMEDABAD

   Last September, Adani purchased a 74% stake in Mumbai International Airport, the country’s second-busiest. He also sold a 20% stake in his publicly traded renewables firm, Adani Green Energy, to French energy behemoth Total for $2.5 billion.

3. Shiv NadarNET WORTH: $23.5 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: SOFTWARE SERVICES
   RESIDENCE: DELHIThe tech titan stepped down as chairman of $9.9 billion (revenues) HCL Technologies last July, handing over the position to his only daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra.
4. Radhakishan DamaniNET WORTH: $16.5 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: RETAIL, INVESTMENTS
   RESIDENCE: MUMBAIThe low-profile retailing king’s listed supermarket chain Avenue Supermarts operates 221 DMart stores across the country. His brother Gopikishan is also a billionaire.
   
5. Uday KotakNET WORTH: $15.9 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: BANKING
   RESIDENCE: MUMBAIIndia’s richest banker founded and runs Kotak Mahindra Bank, which is among the country’s top four in the private sector. Last June, Kotak sold shares worth $950 million to reduce his stake in the bank to 26% as mandated by the Reserve Bank of India.
6.  Lakshmi MittalNET WORTH: $14.9 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: STEEL
   RESIDENCE: LONDONMittal stepped down as CEO of ArcelorMittal, the $53.3 billion (revenue) steel behemoth, in February, handing over the position to his son, Aditya. Mittal is still the company’s executive chairman.
7. Kumar BirlaNET WORTH: $12.8 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: COMMODITIES
   RESIDENCE: MUMBAIAditya Birla, the fourth generation heir to a vast commodities empire, has paid a high price for his foray into telecommunications. His Vodafone Idea, rebranded as Vi, a joint venture between his Idea Cellular and the Vodafone Group in the United Kingdom, has been losing money in the face of Ambani’s Jio.

    

8. Cyrus PoonawallaNET WORTH: $12.7 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: VACCINES
   RESIDENCE: PUNEPoonawalla’s Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest producer of vaccines by number of doses, is on the frontlines of India’s fight against Covid-19, with multiple vaccine partnerships orchestrated by his son Adar, Serum’s CEO. Adar also struck a deal this year to acquire a 60% stake in listed finance firm Magma Fincorp for $475 million.

    

9. Dilip ShanghviNET WORTH: $10.9 BILLION
   SOURCE OF WEALTH: PHARMACEUTICALS
   RESIDENCE: MUMBAIShanghvi, who founded and runs listed generics drugmaker Sun Pharmaceuticals, returns to the top ten, thanks to a 68% jump in the company’s shares.
   
   
10. Sunil Mittal & familyNET WORTH: $10.5 BILLION
    SOURCE OF WEALTH: TELECOM
    RESIDENCE: DELHISunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, a joint venture with Singapore’s Singtel, is India’s second-largest telecom operator after Ambani’s Jio. Mittal’s son Kavin announced on Twitter in January that his SoftBank-backed start-up Hike, once regarded as India’s answer to WhatsApp, had shut down its messaging service.