Mukesh Ambani Remains Forbes’ Richest Indian, Gautam Adani Jumps Eight Spots To No. 2

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani continues to be the richest Indian for the 12th consecutive year in 2019, according to Forbes Magazine. But it’s the second spot which saw a new entry. Industrialist Gautam Adani has jumped eight spots to end at second position with an income pegged at $15.7 billion.

Ambani has $51.4 billion net worth, while Adani controls Mundra Port, India’s largest, in his home state of Gujarat with $13 billion (revenue). Adani Group’s interests include power generation and transmission, edible oil, real estate and defence, according to the Forbes list.

Ambani leads the list despite the Indian economy facing a slowdown.

The top 10 richest India includes the names of Hinduja brothers, Pallonji Mistry, Uday Kotak, Shiv Nadar, Radhakishan Damani, Godrej family, Lakshmi Mittal and Kumar Birla respectively.

Businessmen Hinduja brothers, construction baron Pallonji Mistry, banker Uday Kotak, tech tycoon Shiv Nadar, investor-entrepreneur Radhakishan Damani, the Godrej family, steel baron Lakshmi Mital and industrialist Kumar Birla are the other people on the list of the ten richest people in India.

Byju Raveendran, the 38-year-old founder of edtech unicorn Byju's, Manohar Lal and Madhusudan Agarwal of Haldiram Snacks, and Rajesh Mehra, whose family owns the popular Jaquar brand of bathroom fittings, are new entrants in the 100 richest people in India.

The biggest setback is Wipro chairman Azim Premji, who saw a sharp fall in this year's list of richest people in India. The billionaire philanthropist fell from No. 2 to No. 17. But it’s to be noted that the downfall is due to his generous donation from earlier this year when Premji gave away around $7.5 billion worth of shares in Wipro to his philanthropic foundation. With that, Premji took his total charity commitment to around Rs 1.5 lakh crore.