INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mumbai: India added more than three dollar billionaires every month in 2019, taking the tally to 138 that has helped the country to feature
at the third position globally, says a report.
China and the US occupied the first and second spot with 799 and 626 billionaires,
respectively.
In total, India got 34 new billionaires to take the count to 138 on the list, topped by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries
with USD 67 billion in networth, minting Rs 7 crore every hour, and the number jumps to 170 if Indian-origin billionaires outside the
country are tallied.
According to the ninth edition of the Hurun Global Rich List 2020, which has a list of 2,817 individuals across the
globe having a networth of USD 1 billion or more, the world has added 480 billionaires in 2019, more than one a day, while China added more
than three a week and India did more than three billionaires a month.
However, according to the report, with 799 China is home to more
billionaires than the US (626) and India combined and is set to add many more pharma billionaires this year as the communist nation fights a
deadly coronavirus epidemic that has already killed more than 2,710 people since mid-January.
There is no surprise that Mumbai is the home
to more than a third of the richest individuals in the country with 50 of them living in the megapolis, making it the ninth richest city
globally, followed by New Delhi with 30, Bengaluru with 17 and Ahmedabad with 12.
With USD 67 billion, Ambani is also the ninth richest in
the world which is topped by Jeff Bezos of Amazon with USD 140 billion.
The second in the list is SP Hinduja family (USD 27 billion), Gautam
Adani (a little over USD 17 billion), Shiv Nadar - family (close to USD 17 billion), and Lakshmi Mittal with over USD 15 billion in
networth.
At the sixth lot is banker Uday Kotak with a networth of around USD 15 billion, making him the richest self-made banker in the
whole world.
At the seventh slot is Azim Premji with (USD 14 billion), followed by Cyrus Poonawalla of Serum Institute (USD 12 billion) and
Cyrus Pallonji Mistry and his son Shapoor Pallonji with USD 11 billion each.
And Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal, all of just 24 years, is the
youngest Indian in the rich list with a networth of USD 1.1 billion.
Hurun Report India managing director Anas Rahman Junaid said the Indian
billionaires are defying gravity as the deepening slowdown does not seem to hamper their growth.
It can be noted that 2019 was a good year
for the stock markets globally with the US bourses rallying 26 per cent and Indian and Chinese indices gaining 15 per cent and 14 per cent,
respectively in the year.
The 50 billionaires of Mumbai control around USD 218 billion of wealth between them, followed by 30 in New Delhi
holding USD 76 billion and 17 in Bengaluru are worth USD 42 billion, while the 12 in Ahmedabad are worth USD 36 billion and the seven in
Hyderabad are worth USD 13 billion, according to Junaid.
