Ambani Becomes India's Richest Man, Beats Adani By Over Rs 3.30 Lakh Crore; Bajaj, Birla Joins Top 10 List

India's rich cumulatively constitute Rs 109 lakh crore of wealth in 2023 so far, as per the 360 One Wealth List By Hurun. In the list, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani becomes the richest Indian, outrunning Gautam Adani by more than Rs 3.30 lakh crore, in the aftermath of Hindenburg's report in early 2023 that escalated amassed billions of dollars rout in Adani stocks. The Adani Group founder's wealth has halved, pushing him to the second rank in the list.

Apart from this, the list revealed that Kumar Mangalam Birla & Family and Niraj Bajaj & Family made a remarkable return to India's top 10 rich list this year, replacing Vinod Shantilal Adani & Family of Adani Group and Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank.

As per the Hurun List, Mukesh Ambani & Family's wealth gained by 2% to Rs 8.08 lakh crore. Ambani's flagship company is behemoth Reliance which is the largest company in India in terms of market share.

Ambani surged to the top spot, surpassing Gautam Adani, whose wealth more than halved by 57% to Rs 4.74 lakh crore. Adani shares were under extreme selling pressure and lost thousands of crores of market value after the US short seller's bombshell report in late January that sent shockwaves in the financial market.

Hurun said that Ambani leads Adani, the second-ranked billionaire, by more than Rs 3.30 lakh crore.

Meanwhile, vaccine maker Cyrus S Poonawalla & Family maintained their third position with a wealth of Rs 2.78 lakh crore which rose by 36% over the year. HCL Tech's Shiv Nadar & Family were at the fourth spot with Rs 2.28 lakh crore wealth, up by 23%. And finally Hinduja Group's Gopichand Hinduja & Family completed the top 5 richest with wealth of Rs 1.76 lakh, registering a rise of 7% from last year.

The second man to lose hefty wealth after Adani would be Radhakishan Damani & family who slid down three spots to hold the eighth rank in the top-10 list, from the earlier position. The DMart retail chain founder's wealth declined by 18% over the year to Rs 1.43 lakh crore.

Furthermore, Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi held climbed three spots to become the sixth richest Indian with a wealth of Rs 1.64 lakh crore, up 3%. ArcelorMittal's LN Mital & Family followed at the seventh rank with Rs 1.62 lakh crore wealth, up 7%.

Meanwhile, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Niraj Bajaj Family climbed two spots each to hold ninth and tenth rank with a wealth of Rs 1.25 lakh crore (+5%) and Rs 1.20 lakh crore (+7%).

Moreover, as per the Hurun's List, 1,319 individuals, which is up by 216 individuals over the year, have a wealth of about Rs 1,000 crore in India, across 138 cities (up by 16 cities). This would be an increase of 76% over the last five years.

Also, the list recorded the entry of 278 new faces with a total of Rs 7.28 lakh crore. Of this, industrial products are the fastest growing industry, adding 33 new faces followed by metals and minings, textiles and apparel & accessories which added 28 new faces each.

There were also 14 entrepreneurs born in the 90s that made it to the list and all of them are self-made. Among these, Bengaluru-based Kaivalya Vohra, at 20 years old becomes the youngest self-made and youngest rich individual after founding the grocery delivery app Zepto. Additionally, Neha Narkhede, aged 38 and currently the co-founder of Confluent, a streaming data technology company, becomes the youngest self-made woman entrepreneur in the country.

Notably, Hurun also said that India gained 2 new billionaires every three weeks in the past year, now boasting $259 dollar worth of billionaires, marking a 4-4 fold increase in 12 years.