Although the year saw a sharp depreciation of the rupee amid weak global macroeconomic conditions, the combined wealth of India’s 100 richest people grew by $25 billion to reach $800 billion in 2022, according to
Forbes India.
After breaking records in 2021, business tycoon Gautam Adani once again stole the show as his growing wealth changed the pecking order at the top for the first time since 2008.
Adani doubled his fortune in 2022 to $150 billion to become the richest man in India and for a brief period the second richest man on the planet! This is after nearly tripling his wealth in 2021.
As the biggest gainer in both percentage and dollar terms this year, Adani recently announced a mega $100 billion investment plan over the next decade, 70% of which will be in green energy.
Adani feels comfortable
Ltd’s Mukesh Ambani, who has long worn the hat of India’s richest man. Ambani’s wealth is down 5% from last year to $88 billion.
However, the Adanis and Ambanis now account for 30% of the total wealth of India’s 100 richest.
Stock market veteran Radhakishan Damani, who also runs the country’s DMart supermarket chain, ranked No. 3 on the billionaires list for the first time, although his net worth fell 6% to $27.6 billion.
Meanwhile, strong sales of the COVID-19 vaccine for the second year pushed Serum Institute of India’s Cyrus Poonawalla to the No. 4 position with a net worth of $21.5 billion.
New participants
Some new-age tech companies haven’t seen their best days on the stock market, but they’ve definitely helped their owners land on the 2022 100 Richest List.
One of them is Falguni Nayar of FSN-Ecommerce Ltd, who started the beauty brand ‘Nykaa’ after quitting her job as an investment banker. With a fortune of $4.08 billion, Nayar is the 44th richest person in India.
Ravi Modi, the promoter of
, which owns the popular brand Manyavar and made its stock market debut in February this year, has also joined the elite club of billionaires. With a net worth of $3.75 billion, Modi was the 50th richest person in the country.
Losing wealth
Among those who saw significant wealth erosion was the fintech firm
owner Vijay Shekhar Sharma, amid a rout of global tech giants amid US recession worries.
Byju Raveendran, who runs popular edutech platform Byju’s, also saw his net worth drop.
Several pharmaceutical company owners like Murli Divi of Divi’s Laboratories, Singh family of Alkem Laboratories, Yusuf Hamied of Cipla were among the list of losers.
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