India among top 3 nations generating most billionaires, Mukesh Ambani wealthiest

Kochi, Feb 4: India has for the first time managed to find a place among the top three countries generating most number of billionaires in the world with Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani, heading the Hurun Global Rich List-India 2015 of wealthiest in the country.

The India list gives details of the richest people in the country with a cut off wealth of Rs 6,000 crore. Mukesh Ambani with a a wealth of Rs 1.2 lakh crore tops the list among billionaires in the country, followed by Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma with an estimated wealth of Rs 1.02 lakh crore. Pallonji Mistry and family of Tata Sons with Rs 96,000 crore assets are in the third place.

"It has been a busy year for the energy tycoon whose flagship company Reliance last year sought approval of Rs 78,000 crore expansion to their existing refinery business. Ambani also bought out one of the largest media houses, Network 18, for Rs 4200 crore," the report said.

This is the first time India is among the top three countries with the maximum number of billionaires. While US tops the list, China is in second place followed by India, as per the list prepared by Huran Global Rich list report which was prepared by its India head office at Kochi.

India leapfrogged Russia and UK to the third place. Of the 2,089 billionaires across the world, 97 reside in India. Wipro's Azim Premji (Rs 84,000 crore), HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar (Rs 66,000 crore), Kumar Birla of Aditya Birla (Rs 60,000 crore) and Sunil Mittal and family (Rs 60,000 crore) are among the top 10 in the India list.

According to the list, 41 of the 97 billionaires have inherited wealth and 56 are self made billionaires. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon, with an estimated wealth of Rs 6,000 crore, is the only woman billionaire in the country who has not inherited her wealth.

Savitri Jindal and family with a wealth of Rs 16,200 crore is the top ranked female billionaire in India followed by Indu Jain of Bennett Coleman at Rs 15,000 crore. SP Hinduja of the Hinduja group tops among the wealthiest Indians outside the country with a wealth of USD 18 billion followed by Lakshmi N Mittal with USD 14 billion.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates tops the Global Rich list 2015 with a wealth of $85 billion. Anas Raman Junaid, publisher at large, Hurun Report India, said, "The dynamism in the Indian economy explains why India was able to shoot into the top three countries for billionaires after US and China on the Hurun Global Rich list."

PTI