40 Indians Join the Billionaires' Club in 2020: Report

Despite the entire world undergoing gloomy period in 2020, about 40 Indians have made it to the billionaires ‘club to take the number of those in the coveted list to 177 people, says a report.

The head of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani has continued to be the wealthiest Indian with a net worth of about $83 billion. He has obtained a 24 percent jump in fortunes and raised one spot to be the eighth richest globally, according to the Hurun Global Rich List.

Adani Group head Gautam Adani, has witnessed a spectacular rise in fortunes in the last few years, and saw observed his wealth doubling to touch $ 32 billion in 2020 and he elevated 20 places to be the 48th richest person worldwide and the second wealthiest Indian. His brother Vinod’s wealth grew 128 percent to $ 9.8 billion.

The report gather the information of the individual or family wealth in the year to January 15. It could be noted that the Indian economy is set to shrink by more than seven percent because of the impact of the pandemic, which had strained governments to go for lockdowns that had a debilitating impact on the poor.

Anas Rahman Junaid, Hurun India’s Managing Director and Chief Researcher says that Indian wealth creation has been dominated by cyclical or traditional industries compared to tech-driven wealth creation in the US and China.

He further adds, “When the tech-driven wealth creation reaches full potential, India could potentially beat USA in terms of the number of billionaires.”

Alongside, HCL’s Shiv Nadar was the third wealthiest Indian with a net worth of $ 27 billion while some peers in the tech industry dominated the list of fastest growing wealth.

Jay Chaudhry of software company Zcaler witnessed a 274 percent rise in net worth to $ 13 billion during the year while Byju Raveendran saw a 100 percent increase in its wealth to $ 2.8 billion, the report states.Among those who saw a decline in their networth during the year was Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali Ayurved at $3.6 billion, down 32 percent.

The financial capital continues to lead in the country from a concentration perspective, being home to 60 of the 177 Indian billionaires, followed by New Delhi at 40 and Bengaluru at 22 billionaires, it said.