Ashok Soota Debuts On Hurun India Rich List Topped By Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani has retained his title as the world’s richest Indian for the ninth year in a row, this time with an even wider margin, according to the Hurun-IIFL Wealth report released Tuesday. Debuting on the India rich list is 77-year-old Ashok Soota, who is coming off a bumper listing of his IT firm Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd.

The rankings come at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has put the Indian economy on course for its first annual contraction in at least four decades and raised the spectre of wider inequality when growth returns. The list includes 828 Indians who were worth more than Rs 1,000 crore as on Aug. 31, 2020.

According to the Hurun rich list:

• The net worth of Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., rose 73% to Rs 6.58 lakh crore as his company’s stock rose in tandem with the dizzying fundraising by Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail.
• Cyrus Mistry and Shapoor Mistry of Shapoorji Pallonji group, which is seeking nearly Rs 1.78 lakh crore for its 18.4% stake in Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., saw a 1% decline in wealth to Rs 76,000 crore each.
• Gautam Adani, who is diversifying his namesake conglomerate, saw his net worth surge 48% to Rs 1.40 lakh crore. He is now the fourth richest Indian. He recently acquired six regional airports as well as the Mumbai airport from GMR Group.
• Hinduja Brothers, who are reportedly embroiled in a property dispute, are worth Rs 1.43 lakh crore. They managed to remain as the second richest despite a 23% decline in their wealth.
• These individuals are followed by HCL Technologies Ltd.’s Shiv Nadar and family, whose fortunes rose 34% to Rs 1.41 lakh crore. Wipro Ltd.'s Azim Premji slipped two places to fifth in the rankings with a net worth of Rs 1.14 lakh crore.
• Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman of the world's largest vaccine maker Serum Institute of India, saw his net worth rise 6% to Rs 94,300 crore and was ranked sixth.
• D-Mart’s (Avenue Supermarts Ltd.) Radhakishan Damani and his family broke into the Top 10 with a 56% rise in wealth to Rs 87,200 crore.
• Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.’s promoter Uday Kotak saw an 8% decline in his net worth to Rs 87,000 crore, slipping one place to eighth.
• On the back of a blockbuster IPO, 77-year-old Ashok Soota of Happiest Minds debuted on the list with a net worth of Rs 3,700 crore.

Mumbai continues to have an edge over Delhi, when it comes to being home to the richest Indians. Most of the richest Indians abroad live in the U.S.

Only 40 of the 828 individuals, or 5% of the list, are women. 69-year-old Smita Crishna of Godrej leads the chart with a net worth at Rs 32,400 crore. She is followed by Biocon’s Kiran Majumdar-Shaw with a net worth of Rs 31,600 crore.