Mukesh Ambani tops Hurun India Rich list 2020, Radhakishan Damani debuts in top 10

NEW DELHI: Mukesh Ambani continues to be the richest Indian for the ninth consecutive year on the Hurun India Rich list 2020 with Rs 6,58,400 crore of personal wealth, most of which is derived from his stake in Reliance Industries. He is the only Indian to feature among the top 5 on the global rich list.

The Hurun India list names the richest individuals in the country having a wealth of Rs 1,000 crore or more as on August 31, 2020. In the 2020 edition, the list had 828 Indians.

London-based Hinduja brothers (SP Hinduja, along with his three brothers) with a joint wealth of Rs 1,43,700 crore bagged the second position. HCL Founder Shiv Nadar with a wealth of Rs 1,41,700 crore ranked third, followed by Gautam Adani & family at fourth spot and Wipro’s Azim Premji at fifth spot.

Radhakishan Damani, Founder of Avenue Supermarts, debuted on the list of top 10 wealthiest individuals on the Hurun India Rich List 2020, at the seventh place.


Other names in the Top 10 list included Cyrus S Poonawalla of Serum Institute of India, Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Dilip Shanghvi of Sun Pharma and Cyrus Pallonji Mistry and Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji Group.

The cumulative value of the 828 individuals on the list stood at $821 billion (Rs 60,59,500 crore), an increase of $140 billion (Rs 10,29,400 cr) over the 2019 count, a large part of which was due to the rise in share price of Reliance Industries.

"Twenty-eight per cent of the upswing in wealth on the list has been brought in by Mukesh Ambani, bespeaking Ambani's meteoric success post diversifying from oil to telecom and retail. A further 21% of the additional wealth has been generated by pharma sector, mainly on the back of a rise in healthcare spends and a realigned priority towards personal healthcare stimulated by the Covid-19,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India.

The IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2020 has been researched and compiled by the Hurun Research Institute for the seventh year running, using a cut-off of August 31, 2020 when the rate of exchange to the US dollar was Rs 73.67. The list relates to Indians only, defined as born or brought up in India.

Smitha V Crishna, third-generation heir of the Godrej Empire, ranks as the richest woman in the list followed by Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Nearly 5 per cent of the list (40 individuals) are women; and 10 of them are self-made. The personal wealth of Crishna stood at Rs 32,400 crore and that of Shaw at Rs 31,600 crore, who is also the richest self-made woman in India.

Thanks to the stellar IPO of Happiest Minds, its 77-year-old Founder Ashok Soota also debuted on the list with a wealth of Rs 3,700 crore .

“Assuming that for every one Hurun rich lister we have found, we have probably missed two, it is likely that India today has 2,000 individuals with Rs 1,000 crore or more wealth,” Junaid said.

All three founders of B2B startup Udaan became the highest gainers in terms of wealth since the 2019 edition – with an increase of 274 per cent in wealth for each one. Chigurupati Krishna Prasad (65) of Granules India recorded a 218 per cent jump in his wealth to Rs 3,500 crore.

With Rs 4,500 crore wealth, Ritesh Agarwal (26) of Oyo Rooms is the youngest person on the list while with Rs 5,400 crore wealth, Dharam Pal Gulati (96) of MDH is the oldest.