In Forbes annual listing of the of nations wealthiest people, released Wednesday, Industrialist Mukesh Ambani, who monopolized the title of the richest Indian over the last eight years, is once again on the top spot. The industrialist still ranks as the most moneyed man in the country for the ninth year in a row.
The Reliance Industries(RIL) chairman, Mukesh Ambani, is now worth $18.9 billion, a figure that has dropped in the past year by $4.7 billion due to lower crude prices.Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi, with a net worth of $18 billion was at second place while Wipro’s Azim Premji retained his third place with $15.9 billion.
Others in the Top 10 List:
Though the combined net worth of Indias 100 richest remains largely unchanged at $345 billion, as compared to $346 billion a year ago, there are some changes. Ten tycoons saw a decline of more than $1 billion each in their fortunes.
Hinduja brothers were in the 4th position with wealth at $15.9 billion, followed by Pallonji Mistry at $14.7 billion while Shiv Nadar ($12. 9 billion) and Godrej family ($11.4 billion) grabbed the 6th and 7th spot respectively.
Steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, whose fortune plummeted by $4.6 billion slipped three places and is now at number 9. The biggest gainer on the list was Vaccine maker Serums Cyrus Poonawalla, whose wealth rose from $6.2 billion to $7.9 million putting him at number 9, Kumar Mangalam Birla bagged the 10 spot with $7.8 billion.
New Entrants:
According to the Forbes list, there were 12 new entrants this year. Thanks to his vast interests in Africa, Dubai-based Sunil Vaswani of the Stallion Group, debuts this year at 48th spot with an estimated fortune of $2 billion.
Sachin & Binny Bansal, founders ofFlipkartalso make their debut this year. With a net worth of $1.3 billion each, the two were at No. 86. Rakesh Gangwal, an airline veteran and co-founder of IndiGo has debuted at 70th position with a net worth of $ 1.6 billion.
“After the euphoria of 2014, India is facing a reality check in 2015. This has impacted several big fortunes in the top 100. But India’s entrepreneurial spirit remains buoyant as is evident from the dozen new faces on the list” saidForbes Asia India editorNaazneen Karmali.
