India's billionaires double their wealth in a year, Adani tops the chart: Forbes list

The collective wealth of India's 100 richest tycoons surpassed the trillion dollar milestone for the first time as more than 80 per cent of the country's richest tycoons are now wealthier than they were a year ago, a Forbes report showed on Thursday.

In a record-breaking year, India's wealthiest are now worth $1.1 trillion, more than twice as rich as they were in 2019, according to the Forbes list of India's top 100 billionaires.

“The biggest dollar gainer is infrastructure magnate Gautam Adani, who posted a strong recovery from last year's short-selling attack and recently placed his sons and nephews in key positions,” the report noted.

“With his brother Vinod (Adani), he added $48 billion to take the family's net worth to $116 billion, enough to retain the No. 2 position,” it added.

According to the report, India's wealthiest added $316 billion or nearly 40 per cent in just the past 12 months, as investor enthusiasm about the country's growth story remains robust under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term.

“Savitri Jindal, matriarch of steel-to-power conglomerate OP Jindal Group, whose son Sajjan Jindal recently made an ambitious foray into electric vehicles with MG Motor, moved up to No. 3 for the first time. She's one of nine women on the list, up from eight a year ago,” the report revealed.

Mahima Datla, who controls privately-held vaccine producer Biological E. is one of four newcomers to the Forbes list.

Others on the coveted list are B. Partha Saradhi Reddy, founder of Hetero Labs, a maker of generic medicines and pharma ingredients; Harish Ahuja of apparel maker Shahi Exports and Surender Saluja, founder and chairman of Premier Energies, which makes solar panels and modules.

Dilip Shanghvi, founder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, jumped three spots to fifth position with $32.4 billion and siblings Sudhir and Samir Mehta of Torrent Group more than doubled their wealth to $16.3 billion.

From the Godrej family, brothers Adi and Nadir Godrej, who control listed companies under the Godrej Industries Group, and their cousins Jamshyd Godrej and Smita Crishna Godrej, who control privately-held flagship Godrej & Boyce under the Godrej Enterprises Group, are on the list.

Nikhil Kamath, 38, who co-founded and runs online brokerage Zerodha with his brother Nithin, 45, is among the six nonagenarians on the list.