By India Today Business DeskReliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani was the only Indian to make it to the top 10 billionaires on the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List, with a net worth of $82 billion.
The 65-year-old industrialist has retained his title as Asia’s richest man for the third consecutive year. He is also the richest telecom entrepreneur on the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List.
On the other hand, it has been a turbulent year for Gautam Adani, who was poised to take away the title of Asia’s richest man from Ambani this year, but managed to hold on to the spot briefly.
Adani’s net worth took a massive beating due to a scathing report published by US short seller Hindenburg Research in January.
“After a report in January by US short-seller Hindenburg led to Adani seeing his wealth down by more than 60% from his peak. Just before the report, Adani was briefly the world’s second richest person, noted the report.
Gautam Adani lost Rs 3,000 crore every week over the last year, as per the report. He has slipped 11 places in this year’s ranking, but still remains the third-richest energy entrepreneur in this year’s rich list.
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India ranks 3rd in terms of total billionaires
India ranked third in the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List, below the US and China, in terms of total billionaires in the country.
Billionaires residing in India witnessed a slight drop to 187 in 2023 from 215 last year. The number of billionaires, however, increases to 217 if Indian-origin individuals are added, said the report.
It may be noted that Mumbai is home to 66 Indian billionaires, followed by New Delhi with 39 and Bengaluru with 21.
One interesting fact mentioned in the report is that over the past five years, Indian billionaires on the 2023 rich list added approximately $361 billion to their cumulative wealth, equivalent to Hong Kong’s GDP.
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In terms of the number of billionaires who have added $1billion or more over the last year, India occupies sixth rank in the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List. On the other hand, India is also at the top of the league table when it comes to wealth depletion.
“When countries such as China and USA had 178 and 123 billionaires respectively, who lost more than $1 billion, India had 41 billionaires who lost more than a billion-dollar YoY in the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List,” said the report.
From healthcare to aviation – Other key Indian billionaire trends
The healthcare sector minted the highest number of Indian dollar billionaires, followed by consumer goods and chemicals. In comparison, the financial services, healthcare and retail sectors churned more global billionaires.
With a wealth of $27 billion, Cyrus S Poonawalla of Serum Institute of India is the richest healthcare billionaire in the world, followed by Dilip Shanghvi and his family of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries with a net worth of $17 billion.
The country is also home to the richest aviation billionaires in the world. With a cumulative wealth of $3.6 billion and $3.3 billion respectively, Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia and family of IndiGo airlines are the wealthiest aviation billionaires to feature on the global rich list in 2023.
Jumping over 1,005 spots over the last three years, Byju’s founder and CEO Byju Raveendran and his family ranked 994th in this year’s ranking, with a wealth of $3.3 billion. Byju’s is the second richest entrepreneur from the education sector in the world.
With a wealth of $14 billion, Kumar Mangalam Birla and his family ranked 136th on the list after and is the second richest cement manufacturer in the world.
HCL Tech’s Shiv Nadar and his family emerged as the third richest software and services billionaire in the world, with a wealth of $26 billion.
Global billionaire ranking trends
The 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List also indicated that the world lost five billionaires every week last year and the number of billionaires is down for the second time in only ten years.
The world has 3,112 billionaires as per this year’s ranking, marking a decrease of 269 from last year when the figure stood at 3,384. China leads the M3M Hurun Global Rich List, followed by the US. Both countries have more than half of the world’s billionaires at 53 per cent.
It is worth noting that the number of billionaires dropped by 8 per cent and their total wealth dropped by 10 per cent compared with last year. At least 1,078 billionaires saw their wealth increase, of which 176 were new faces. On the contrary, 2,479 saw their wealth decrease or stay the same, of which 445 dropped-off. The average age was 66.
Commenting on the launch, Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M India said, “At a critical point in history, when India’s GDP is poised to double by the end of the decade, we are excited about celebrating and benchmarking wealth creation in India with the rest of the world.”
Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India, said, “M3M Hurun Global Rich List 2023 tells the story of the current global economy through the eyes of entrepreneurs.”
Johnnie King
Kayleigh Rogahn
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