KOCHI: Thrissur has broken into the top 10 Indian cities on the M3M Hurun India Rich List 2026, released on Wednesday, ranking 10th with a combined wealth of Rs 1.73 lakh crore among its listed super-rich residents. It is the only city from Keralam to make the list, edging past several larger, more industrialised centres.
The 15th edition of the listing identifies 1,810 individuals across 163 cities with a net worth of Rs 1,000 crore or more. India now has 391 dollar billionaires, 27 more than last year. “The M3M Hurun India Rich List 2026 captures a year in which wealth creation outpaced the stock market. Cumulative wealth rose 12.8% to Rs 187.5 lakh crore, even as the Nifty 50 fell 3.9% and the Sensex declined 5.8%. India now has a record 391 dollar billionaires. At the 2014 exchange rate, we would have had 559. Turns out, the rupee is a rather harsh bouncer at the billionaire club. It’s keeping 168 people out!” Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher of Hurun India, told TNIE.
“Thrissur continues to punch far above its weight. It remains Keralam’s wealth capital. That wealth is built on trust-led businesses such as gold, jewellery and retail, which have grown from single showrooms into global brands,” Anas said.
The distinction comes soon after the temple town was ranked ahead of Kochi and several larger Indian cities in the top 1,000 cities of the world in the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index 2026. That global recognition now finds an echo in the country’s barometer of private wealth.
Thrissur, long known for its Pooram festival, music academies and network of jewellery shops, has quietly emerged as one of the country’s most concentrated repositories of personal wealth.
Gold retailer Joy Alukkas, ranked 21st nationally with a wealth of Rs 1,02,200 crore, is Keralam’s richest individual by a wide margin. The city is also home to T S Kalyanaraman and family of Kalyan Jewellers (ranked 64th, Rs 40,900 crore), V P Nandakumar of Manappuram Finance (Rs 15,900 crore), and Jos Alukkas and family (Rs 14,000 crore). Together, they account for four of the state’s wealthiest names on the list.
The number of people in the list associated with Thrissur could have been higher, at seven, if Yusuffali MA, who is originally from Nattika but is a UAE resident, Kochouseph Chittilappilly, of Kochi, and M P Ramachandran of Jyothy Laboratories, who is based in Mumbai, were included based on their Thrissur links.
Across Keralam, more than 32 individuals figure in this year’s list, with a combined wealth of around Rs 6.3 lakh crore. Much of Keralam’s wealth has been built in the Gulf and brought back or invested in the state, making the diaspora-led model a distinctive feature of the its wealth story.