The battle for the title of India's and Asia’s richest tycoon is heating up again. The latest Hurun Rich List puts Gautam Adani in top spot, knocking Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani into second place.
But wait — two other wealth experts, Forbes and Bloomberg, aren’t buying Hurun’s calculations. Forbes and Bloomberg reckon Ambani, who announced Thursday a huge green energy and AI thrust and importantly for shareholders, a bonus issue, is still richer by at least $11 billion.
The Hurun India Rich list claims Adani has bounced back from the bombshell Hindenburg report on the Adani group which slashed his fortune by a stunning $80 billion. Hurun reckons Adani is now worth a colossal $130 billion, leaving Ambani behind at $122 billion. Most importantly, Hurun reckons Adani has regained 95 per cent of the estimated wealth he lost after the scathing Hindenburg document that appeared in January 2023. Adani strongly denied the hedge fund’s allegations that the group had committed fraud and money-laundering.
Forbes and Bloomberg disagree strongly with Hurun’s estimates. Forbes pegs Ambani as India’s and Asia’s richest, worth $117.1 billion and ranked 12th globally. Adani, according to Forbes, lags at $81.9 billion. Bloomberg’s numbers differ too — Ambani at $112 billion (11th globally) and Adani at $101 billion (15th globally).
However, it should also be mentioned, Forbes reckons that Gautam’s elder brother Vinod Adani is worth $25 billion in his own right and in 78th position globally.
Hurun reckons that India now has 334 billionaires which is six times what we had when the India Rich List was first drawn up 13 years ago. By comparison, the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List calculates there are currently 200 Indians on its list.
Don’t forget that just before the Hindenburg bombshell report, Adani was jockeying between second and third position globally, ahead of the world’s most famous tycoons like Warren Buffett, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates (though it should always be remembered Gates has already given away large chunks of his fortune for philanthropic reasons and these aren’t counted as part of his fortune any longer).
Adani did overtake Ambani, according to the Bloomberg Index, in the first few days of June and was reckoned to be worth $111 billion and in 11th position globally. Ambani, on the same day, was estimated to have fallen slightly behind at $109 billion.
The Hurun Rich List offers plenty of new faces and the biggest one may be actor Shah Rukh Khan. He makes a splash with his debut and is reckoned to be worth Rs 7,300 crore or nearly $1 billion. The big surprise here is that Khan’s wealth has zoomed because he’s playing on the right wicket and the value of his Kolkata Knight Riders has skyrocketed. Yes, his Red Chillies Entertainment with movies like Pathaan has also done well. But his ventures with bat and ball have done even better.
Other new stars to watch out for on the Hurun Rich List are the enfants terrible who co-founded Zepto, which bills itself as India’s fastest online grocery delivery. Zepto offers to deliver any one of 7,000 items ranging from fresh vegetables to tea and coffee, gadgets and even make-up in 10 minutes flat. One Zepto co-founder, Kaivalya Vohra, is the youngest person on the list and worth Rs 3,600 crore ($433 million). His partner in fast delivery, Aadit Palicha, is worth Rs 4,300 crore ($518 million) but is 22 so can’t claim to be the youngest on the list.
Zepto was founded in April 2021 and Vohra was barely old enough to vote at the time. Both the founders have lived most of their lives in Dubai and Vohra dropped out of Stanford to found the company. His mother is still reportedly hoping he’ll return to university and finish his degree.
Out of the Top 10 on the Hurun List. HCL’s Shiv Nadar is reckoned to be worth Rs 314,000 crore ($37 billion) and in third position which puts him ahead of Cyrus Poonawalla who’s estimated to be worth Rs 289,800 crore ($34 billion).
Behind them are Dilip Shangavi of Sun Pharmaceuticals ($30 billion), Kumar Mangalam Birla Rs 235,000 crore ($28 billion) and Gopichand Hinduja Rs 192,700 crore ($23.2 billion). Then there’s retail star Radhakrishnan Damani (Rs 190,900 crore) and Wipro’s Azim Premji Rs 190,000 crore ($19.6 billion).