NEW DELHI: While a lot has been talked about the shrinking rural growth, the slowing economy has taken a toll on India’s richest men and women too. Interestingly, however, the combined wealth of top 25 richest people equalled 10 per cent of India’s GDP (gross domestic product).
Mukesh Ambani continues to be the richest Indian with a wealth of Rs 3,80,700 crore; that is, 2.6 times the revenue foregone by the Central government as it cut corporate income taxes to their lowest level weeks ago.
However, at least 953 wealthiest individuals in India have shed Rs 3,72,800 crore; this is a depletion of 7 per cent of the total wealth in 2019 as compared to that in the year-ago period. In fact, if we include the new wealth added this year, the average wealth shows a decline of 11 per cent during the same period.
According to the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2019, at least 344 individuals, or more than a third of this year’s list, witnessed wealth reduction and another 112 failed to meet the cut-off of Rs 1,000 crore – that is almost half of last year’s list.
For instance, billionaire Dilip Shanghvi has seen 20 per cent drop in his wealth to Rs 71,500 crore. Since 2016, Dilip Shanghvi has lost Rs 50,000 core in net-worth and slipped to the tenth place in 2019 from second in 2016.
Steel magnate Lakshmi N Mittal, who runs ArcelorMittal, is the fourth richest with a wealth of Rs 1.07 lakh crore but saw his net worth erode by 6 per cent in sync with the stress in the metal sector.
Among the players who crashed out of the richest list is Anil Ambani. The equity value of Ambani’s listed business empire has declined to Rs 2,000 crore. If one were to exclude the pledged shares, the equity value is at Rs 584 crore.