CHENNAI: India’s richest man and Reliance Industries’ head Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is more than the entire GDP of the East European country of Estonia, said Forbes on Thursday.
With a networth of $22.7 billion, Ambani’s personal net worth has crossed the GDP of several small nations. A distinction he holds with Wipro’s Azim Premji, the fourth richest Indian on the Forbes list, who has a networth of $15 billion — more than the African nation of Mozambique’s GDP of $14.7 billion.
Other famous Indians who make more and are worth more than many countries include Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi — the second richest Indian a networth of $16.9 billion. The Hinduja Family, who own the Hinduja Group, moved up to the third position ($15.2 billion) on the annual list of India’s 100 Richest People released by Forbes.
Apart from those at the top of the list, this year’s account of the richest Indian businesspersons has seen the entry of a few newcomers, including tech entrepreneurs — the Turakhia brothers and FMCG major Patanjali’s Acharya Balkrishna. Flipkart’s founders Sachin and Binny Bansal however, dropped off the list, with valuations e-commerce firms (Flipkart especially) falling over the last year.
Others on the list were Pallonji Mistry, with a networth of $13.90 billion, who became the fifth richest Indian on the list. According to Forbes, the total wealth of India’s top five billionaires stands at a monumental $83.7 billion. The figure is more than the cost of 1,230 Mars Orbiter ‘Mangalyaan’ Missions and more than 18 times the cost of hosting the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Forbes went on to add that much of the wealth is accumulated in the top half of the ‘Richie Rich’ league, adding that if the ‘80-20 rule’ is applied to the list, it indicates a ‘trickling down’ of fortunes to the lower order. “The 80-20 rule, when applied to the rich list, should translate to the top 20 billionaires accounting for 80 per cent of the wealth. However, the share of the top 20 in overall wealth has steadily eroded from 70 per cent in 2009 to 52 percent in 2016, indicating a trickling down of fortunes to the lower order,” the business magazine said.
According to the list, the total wealth of the 100 richest Indians stood at $381 billion, up 10 per cent from $345 billion in 2015.