Forbes World's Billionaires List 2021: India Adds 38 New Billionaires During Pandemic, Mukesh Ambani Retains Asia's Richest Tag

The three richest Indians alone have added just over $100 billion between them, with Mukesh Ambani been ranked Number 10 in the list with a net worth estimated at $84.5 billion.

(File Photos/ Getty)

Mumbai: The number of Indian billionaires has risen to 140 during the COVID-19 pandemic from 102 last year, with their combined wealth nearly doubling to $596 billion and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani retaining the tag of Asia's most prosperous, according to Forbes.

The three richest Indians alone have added just over $100 billion between them, with Mukesh Ambani been ranked Number 10 in the list with a net worth estimated at $84.5 billion, according to the list of the world's wealthiest billionaires as it released the 35th annual list on Tuesday.

Infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani became a whopping $42 billion richer, as shares of his firms, including Adani Enterprises and Adani Green Energy, skyrocketed, making him India's second wealthiest.

Adani, shares his Gujarati origins and deal-making instinct with Ambani as he persuaded Total, his gas business partner, to invest in his renewable energy venture.

Adani expanded vigorously into airports, unfazed by the travel slowdown, with his fortune up five-fold since 2020.

The tech titan Shiv Nadar stepped down as chairman of $9.9 billion (revenues) HCL Technologies last July, handing over the position to his only daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra. He is India's third-richest, with a fortune of 23.5 billion.

The low-profile retail king Radhakishan Damani is ranked fourth richest Indian with a net worth of $16.5 billion. His listed supermarket chain Avenue Supermarts operates 221 DMart stores across the country. Mr. Damani's fortune was divided this year. His brother Gopikishan Damani is listed separately for the first time based on new information about his holdings.

Uday Kotak, India's richest banker, founded and runs Kotak Mahindra Bank, which is among the country's top four in the private sector. Kotak ranked fifth in the list with a net worth of $15.9 billion. Last June, Kotak sold shares worth $950 million to reduce his stake in the bank to 26%, as mandated by the Reserve Bank of India.

Steel tycoon Laxmi Nivas Mittal is ranked sixth on the list, with a fortune of $14.9 billion.  Mittal stepped down as CEO of ArcelorMittal, the $53.3 billion steel behemoth, in February, handing over the reins to his son, Aditya. Mittal remains executive chairman of the company.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, the fourth-generation heir of a sprawling commodities empire, is ranked seventh richest Indian with a fortune of $12.8 billion. Aditya Birla Group chairman has paid a high price for his foray into telecom. In the fight against Ambani's Jio, his Vodafone Idea rebranded as Vi, a joint venture between his Idea Cellular and the Vodafone Group in the United Kingdom, has been losing money.

Vaccine billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla's with a net worth of $12.7 billion, is the eighth richest Indian. Serum Institute of India  (SII), headed by his 40-year-old son Adar, entered the Covid-19 vaccine race early, establishing several alliances and investing $800 million in the construction of a new factory. Poonawalla's Covishield, a made-in-India variant of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, is now being administered worldwide.

After slipping last year, pharma magnate Dilip Shanghvi climbed back into the top 10, propelled by a jump in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries shares. With a net worth of $10.9 billion, Mr. Shanghvi is ranked the ninth richest Indian.

With a network of $10.5 billion, Sunil Mittal and his family are ranked India's 10th richest.  

His Bharti Airtel, a joint venture with Singapore's Singtel, is India's second-largest telecom operator after Ambani's Jio. In January, Mittal's son Kavin announced on Twitter that his SoftBank-backed start-up Hike, once considered as a rising unicorn and India's answer to WhatsApp, had shut down its messaging service.

Nineteen newcomers from India have entered the list, while another 19 have returned after being removed previously. Prathap Reddy, the octogenarian founder and chairman of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, whose chain of Apollo Hospitals is treating Covid-19 patients, is one of the new faces. Arvind Lal, the founder, and CEO of Dr.Lal PathLabs, a diagnostics chain that recently received government approval to perform Covid-19 tests.