MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries, who has been the richest person for decades losing the title in between a couple of times to Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi and Adani group’s Gautam Adani, has retained the top position in the Forbes India's 100 people richest list for 2025.
However, despite the steeply rising income disparities, the combined wealth of the country’s 100 richest on the Forbes list fell 9% or $100 billion to $1 trillion, primarily because of the poor performance of the stock market.
With $105 billion networth, Ambani remains a “centibillionaire”, Forbes said in a statement, adding at No 2 is Gautam Adani and family with a fortune of $92 billion. Retaining the third spot on the list is Savitri Jindal of the OP Jindal Group, whose networth fell by $3.5 billion to $40.2 billion.
Telecoms magnate Sunil Mittal is the biggest dollar gainer this year with his networth, which he shares with his family, increasing by $3.5 billion to $34.2 billion. Mittal climbed three places to No 4, a position he had last occupied in 2008.Tech billionaire Shiv Nadar known for his charity, last year’s fourth-richest person, slipped to the fifth place with a fortune of $33.2 billion.
At the sixth slot is the retailer Radhakishan Damani & family with $28.2 billion in networth, followed by Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma with $26.3 billion, the Bajaj Family at No 8 with $21.8 billion and Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute with $21.4 billion and No 10 is Kumar Birla with $20.7 billion. Making their debut on the list at No 37 are the Doshi siblings with a combined fortune of $7.5 billion.
Their Waaree Energies, which is the largest maker of solar panels by capacity in the country now, went public late last year at a 70% premium to its issue price. Another newcomer is Sunil Vachani at No 80 with $3.85 billion, who is the founder-chairman of Dixon Technologies, which makes a range of electronic products for companies such as Samsung and Xiaomi.
Those who returned to the billionaire list this year include Leena Tewari (No 82, $3.8 billion) of USV; PNC Menon (No 87, $3.6 billion) of Sobha Developers, and KP Ramasamy (No 97, $3.3 billion) of KPR Mills. Seven from last year have dropped off from the ranking, and the cutoff to qualify for the list fell slightly to $3.2 billion from $3.3 billion last year.
This list is based on the value of shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and regulators. Public fortunes are calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of September 19. Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded, Forbes said.
