The most noteworthy list of richest men in India is
the Forbes rich list. It tells you who stands where. Interestingly, four Indians featured in the top 100
Forbes World’s Billionaire list. They are Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji, Shiv
Nadar and Lakshmi Mittal. Overall, 106 Indians featured in the Forbes list. In
the top 10 list of richest persons in India, women’s name was missing……..
In 2020, there were four Indians in the list of 100
richest people in the world. This included Ambani, Adani, Nadar, Uday Kotak of
Kotak Mahindra bank. A lot has changed since. Forbes released its new list of
India’s Billionaires. Despite the recent Covid-19 Pandemic wreaking havoc on the
everyday Indians, there were a few who managed to grow their wealth
significantly during this time. The country has seen an 18.5% growth in the
number of billionaires, according to Forbes, in the year 2021 to 22. Gautam
Adani has moved up to number 2 and Azim Premji has moved down from Number 2 to
Number 17. The drop in Azim Premji’s rank is due to his various philanthropy
activities.
Gautam Adani pipped Warren Buffet as the 5th
richest person in the world. Forbes rich list pegs Adani Group chief’s total
net worth at $123.7bn, about $2bn more than Berkshire Hathway CEO’s $121.7bn. Now
Adani is the richest Indian, ahead of Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of $105bn.
Elon Musk with a net worth $270bn stands first on
the list. Jeff Bezos with a net worth at $170bn is second. Bernand Arnault with
a net worth of $168bn is third. Bill Gates with a net worth at $130bn is
fourth. Gautam Adani with a net worth at $124bn is fifth. And Warren Buffet
with a net worth at 4122bn is sixth on the list.
India has generated a good number of
billionaires, many of them even ranking substantially among the richest persons
in the world. Hailing from a variety of industry backgrounds, Indian
billionaires have helped build the country’s economy in a significant way.
Wealth is bound to fluctuate under the volatile market conditions, especially
since most billionaires have their fortune invested in publicly traded stocks.
Here is the latest ranking of 10 richest persons in India in 2022 as per ‘The
World’s Real Time Billionaires 2022’ published by Forbes.
Gautam Adani
and family :The second in the list of India’s richest persons,
Gautam Adani Group has a staggering net worth of $112.6 billion.
Gautam Adani controls the Mundra Port, which is the largest in Gujarat. Adani
Group has its interests spread across sectors like power generation and
transmission, real estate, commodities and infrastructure. In September 2020,
Adani acquired a 74% stake in the second busiest airport of India, the Mumbai
International Airport. Adani also owns a coal mining project in Australia known
as Abbot Point.
Mukesh
Ambani: Scoring tenth place among the richest persons in
the world in 2022, Mukesh Ambani has $100.0 billion in net worth. The
founder and chairman of Reliance Industries has his interests across
petrochemicals, oil and gas, retail and telecom. The launch of 4G phone
services in the Indian telecom market by Reliance in 2016 spiked a price war
creating strong whirls and sending several networks out of business. During the
Covid-19 lockdown period, Mukesh Ambani sold one third of Jio to some investors
like Google and Facebook raising over $20 billion.
Shiv Nadar: Shiv Nadar, the cofounder of HCL ranks in the third
place among India’s richest billionaires with his wealth estimated at $28.7
billion in 2022. HCL started in 1976 manufacturing calculators and
microprocessors and today it is among the largest providers of software
services in the country with a $102 billion revenue. HCL technologies employed
169,000 people across 50 countries. After Shiv Nadar stepped down as
the CEO of HCL in 2020, his daughter occupied his seat. Shiv Nadar is currently
chairman emeritus. A leading philanthropist in the country, he has given away
over $662 million to Shiv Nadar Foundation to support causes related to
education.
Cyrus
Poonawalla: Cyrus Poonawalla’s net worth stands at $25.8
billion making him the fifth richest person in India in 2022. He is a big name in horse racing too. He founded Serum
Institute of India in 1966, which is today the largest vaccine maker in the
world in terms of doses. The firm produces more than 1.5 billion doses of a
variety of vaccines for flu, polio and measles. His son Adar is the CEO of
Serum which has also invested around $800 million to build a new factory
producing Covid-19 vaccines.
Radhakishan
Damani: Radhakishan Damani’s $20.2 billion net worth places
him in the fourth place among India’s richest persons. He is considered by many as the silent billionaire, as he is rarely seen or heard. The champion of Avenue
Supermarket, he became the retail king of the country after the supermarket
chain completed the IPO in March 2017. He started retailing in India with just
one supermarket in the suburb of Mumbai. Now the retail chain has over 221 D Mart
stores across the country. Damani has his stakes in other businesses like the
tobacco firm VST and India Cements. He owns the 156-room Radisson Blu
Resort in Alibag, which is a famous beachfront getaway near Mumbai.
Lakshmi
Mittal: The sixth rank in the list of India’s richest
persons in 2022 is scored by Lakshmi Mittal who has a net worth of
$182 billion. He is the chairman of ArcelorMittal, the largest steel and mining
company of the world in terms of output, generating $53.3 billion in revenue.
In 2019, Arcelor and Nippon Steel acquired Essar Steel, earlier controlled by
billionaires Ravi Ruia and Shashi. After ceding the firm’s CEO position to his
son Aditya Mittal, Lakshmi Mittal continues to be Arcelor Mittal’s executive
chairman.
Savitri
Jindal and family: With their $19.9 billion net worth in 2022, Savitri
Jindal and family occupy the seventh position among the richest persons in
India. The interests of Jindal Group range across power, cement, infrastructure
and steel. The group is now chaired by Savitri Jindal, widow of Om Prakash
Jindal who founded the Jindal Group. In 2005, Om Prakash Jindal died in a
helicopter crash after which the group’s firms were divided among his four
sons.
Kumar Birla: Kumar Birla is the eighth richest person in India
with his $17.5 billion net worth. Known as the commodities king, he is the head
of the Aditya Birla Group making $46 billion in revenue. The group has its
interests in aluminum and cement besides offering telecom and financial
services too. In August 2021, Kumar Birla stepped down as the chairman of
Vodafone India, a debt strapped firm after which Idea Cellular and Vodafone
India merged in 2018.
Dilip
Shanghvi: Dilip Shanghvi’s $16.3 billion net worth
places him in the ninth position among the country’s richest persons in 2022.
In 1983, his father gave him $200 to start Sun Pharma manufacturing psychiatric
drugs. Today, the firm is among the nation’s leaders in pharmaceutical supplies
with annual revenue of $4.5 billion. Sun Pharma grew through several
acquisitions and the notable one was the purchase of Ranbaxy Laboratories in
2014 in a deal worth $4 billion. Over the recent past, Shanghvi has also
invested in oil and gas and renewable energy.
Sunil Mittal
and family: The tenth place in the list of India’s top 10
richest persons is occupied by Sunil Mittal with his $15.3 billion
net worth. Founder and chairperson of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti
Mittal, a first-generation entrepreneur is the owner of India's second largest
telecom company – Bharti Airtel. Mittal is also known to work towards educating
India through the Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti
Enterprises.
Though we look back at the days of telephone, later
telex, fax machine, answering machine and other communication gadgets with
nostalgia, we get more and more dependent on the virtual world. Today technology
is also aiming to connect people worldwide and strengthen communities. It has
made life a lot easy. Literally at your finger tips!
The web and internet has changed our lives and
habits. And it has also made people lazy and inactive. More and more things
that we used to do traditionally like - shopping, eating, ticketing, reading,
planning vacations or handling our finances and bank accounts, regardless of
the location have developed the ability to connect and communicate through the
mobile or laptop. Specifically mobile technology now allows us to interact with
people and online communities from anywhere at any time without boundaries.
Just with a smart phone or an IPhone you can do
wonders, communicate, transfer funds, order stuff, do booking, sending
information in text, pictures or video in no time. Some years ago one could
only dream of it or see it in sci-fi movies. Today it’s a reality.
With Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype, IMO, Twitter, etc
makes the previous generation ancient. But they were more organized than us
though we have all these means of instant communication. No doubt digital has
ushered in a revolution in communication. But it also has a flip side!
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