Forbes India Rich List 2020: Mukesh Ambani tops chart, Gautam Adani takes second place

Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani. Reuters

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has been ranked as the richest person in India for the 13th consecutive year by Forbes Magazine. Adani Group’s Gautam Adani and HCL’s Shiv Nadar were ranked second and the third spot respectively.

Ambani’s current net wealth stands at $88.7 billion. This comes on the back of investments in Reliance Group companies such as Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail by world’s top technology companies such as Facebook, Google and marquee investors such as KKR, Silver Lake, Mubadala among others.

Adani, at no. 2 has a net wealth of $25.2 billion for the year 2020 while Nadar’s estimated wealth was put at around $20.4 billion.

Overall the rich in India got richer as the top 100 richest named in the list, increased by about 14 percent or $517.5 billion compared with what it was in 2019 as per Forbes Magazine.

The rise in wealth, coming despite a slump in economic and business activity due to COVID-19, can be attributed partly to a corporate tax rate cut by the government last year that brought the tax rate down from 35 percent to 25 percent.

This has brought up scope for Indian business entities to save up a larger chunk of their earnings and utilise it for investments in expansion or return it back to investors and shareholders.

As per Forbes, pharma billionaires have seen a rise in their wealth as a group due to “the disruption in API supplies for China, the demand for cheap generics in the West as well as more contracts for customised medical research and clinical trials saw markets rerate their prospects”.

Man of the Moment, Cyrus Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, the premier group leading the production of a COVID-19 vaccine in India and globally has, according to Forbes, been a big beneficiary. His net worth as of 2020 is pegged at $11.5 billion and he is placed at no. 6 in this year’s list.

Here is the list of top 10 richest people in India as per Forbes:

1) Mukesh Ambani; US$88.7 billion
2) Gautam Adani; $25.2 billion
3) Shiv Nadar; $20.4 billion
4) Radhakishan Damani; $15.4 billion
5) Hinduja brothers; $12.8 billion
6) Cyrus Poonawalla; $11.5 billion
7) Pallonji Mistry; $11.4 billion
8) Uday Kotak; $11.3 billion
9) Godrej family; $11 billion
10) Lakshmi Mittal; $10.3 billion

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder of Info Edge India Limited, which owns Naukri.com is the new entrant in the top 100 richest people’s list at no. 68 with a net worth of $2.1 billion along with Ramesh Kumar & Mukand Lal Dua of Relaxo Footwears (net worth $1.65 billion) at the 84th spot in the list.

Discount broking startup, Zerodha’s, Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, are also new entrants at the 90th spot with a net worth of $1.55 billion.

You can check the full list at Forbes India website by following this link:

Forbes India Rich List 2020: Top 100 richest people in India

Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd