At Rs 11 lakh crore, Adani’s wealth doubles in 1 year: Hurun – Times of India

Mumbai: Adani Group founder Gautam Adani has overtaken Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani to become the richest man in India for the first time in ‘IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022’ with a wealth of Rs 10.9 lakh crore (nearly $140 billion). The list shows that Adani’s wealth more than doubled, growing 116%, in just one year, while Ambani’s net worth grew 11% to Rs 7.9 lakh crore (about $99 billion).
Ambani was ahead of Adani by Rs 2 lakh crore in the list’s 2021 edition. But an over Rs 5-lakh-crore catch-up by Adani put the “takeover tycoon” ahead by Rs 3 lakh crore in 2022. Ambani had held the top position ever since the Hurun’s India rich list was launched in 2012. Adani’s wealth in absolute terms grew by Rs 5.9 lakh crore. According to bankers, a substantial part of Adani’s holdings are encumbered as they are used to raise funds for fresh acquisitions. The Hurun rich list takes into account calculations as of August 30, 2022.

Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani, who manages trading businesses from Dubai, too increased his wealth by 28% to Rs 1.7 lakh crore to move to the number six position from 49 last year. In the last five years, his wealth has increased by 850%, making him the richest NRI.
Adani had pipped Ambani as the richest Indian first on the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index in early February this year. At the time, he had a net worth $88.5 billion, beating Ambani’s then $87.9-billion net worth to become Asia’s richest too.
Last week, he also became the world’s second-richest person behind Elon Musk, according to Bloomberg.
Following the listing of beauty and wellness e-commerce platform Nykaa, Falguni Nayar, has overtaken Biotech chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to become the richest self-made Indian woman. With this, Nayar has also become the richest Indian woman.
Another major gainer during the year is vaccine king Cyrus Poonawalla, who has become the third-richest Indian with a wealth of just over Rs 2 lakh crore. Last year, Poonawalla ranked number seven on the list.
The IIFL Wealth Hurun rich list ranks Indians according to their wealth based on public and disclosed information. According to the report, there are 1,103 individuals with a wealth of over Rs 1,000 crore, which is 96 more than the previous year. Over the last five years, the number of people with over Rs 1,000 crore has grown 65%.
For the first time since the launch of the Hurun lists, the cumulative wealth of the rich listers has grown to cross Rs 100 lakh crore, which is more than the combined gross domestic product of Singapore, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The pharmaceutical sector has been the biggest contributor to the list of wealth creators with 126 entrepreneurs from the sector. Chemicals and petrochemicals contributed 102 entrepreneurs to the list.
“What makes the Indian wealth-creation story truly inspirational is that 67% of the list is self-made, up from 54% five years ago. Also, 79% of the new faces this year are self-made as well. The wealth-creation engine of first-generation entrepreneurs and professional managers is on full throttle and is an important driver for India’s GDP to reach the $5-trillion mark,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD & chief researcher, Hurun India.
There are a few surprises in this year’s rich list. For the first time a teenager — 19-year-old Kaivalya Vohra, who founded Zepto — features on the list. Alakh Pandey, popularly known as ‘physics wallah’ and his co-founder Prateek Boob debuted in the list and are both ranked in the 300th position with a wealth of Rs 4,000 crore after their startup PhysicsWallah turned a unicorn.