Mumbai: Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani may soon dethrone Mukesh Ambani to become Asia's richest if the shares of Adani Group listed firms continue to surge.
With a fortune of $68.4 billion as of Wednesday, Gautam Adani is ranked 15th richest globally according to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, while Mukesh Ambani, with a personal wealth of $75.8 billion, is Asia's most prosperous.
Gautam Adani has seen a meteoritic rise during the COVID-19 pandemic as shares of listed Adani firms surged last year.
Since May 2020, Adani Enterprises shares are up 800%, Adani Transmission shares are up 700%, Adani Total Gas Limited shares are up 1100%, Adani Green Energy Limited shares are up 400%, while Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) shares doubled and Adani Power shares saw three-fold growth.
Gautam Adani has almost doubled his fortune to $68.4 billion since the beginning of 2021, while Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, now Asia's most affluent, has lost $945 million this year.
Among the global billionaires, Adani has added most wealth this year after French tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's largest luxury goods maker.
The rise of Adani comes when India is struggling through the COVID-19 crisis, and the virus is likely to leave Indian families poorer by Rs 66,000 crore as healthcare expenditure is expected to increase by 11% amidst rising inflation fuel bill and falling income, according to SBI Research.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economic data, India's unemployment rate rose to nearly 8% in April with over seven million job losses, the highest in the last four months, as the second wave of pandemic ravages the country.
In April 2021, wholesale inflation was pegged at 10.5%, the highest level in the current series, which began in April 2011. The rise in petrol and diesel prices for vehicles, which increased by 20.6% and 22.5%, respectively, has been a significant contributor to accelerating inflation. According to a research paper authored by former monetary policy committee (MPC) member Ravindra Dholakia and a team of RBI economists, the threshold inflation level for India is pegged at 6%.
After contracting 7.7% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the economists are again lowering India's proposed double-digit growth this year to a single-digit growth due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and slower than expected vaccine rollout.