Thanks to the sustained rally in the stock market, India minted a new billionaire every five days last year even as the global economy was rattled by raging war and high inflation in developed countries.
India added 272 new billionaires with assets of over ₹1,000 crore to the Hurun India Rich List 2024 taking the overall count to 1,539.
Among the new entrants, Venu Srinivasan (71), Chairman, TVS Motor powered himself to the top-100 with staggering wealth of ₹60,400 crore. A recipient of two highest civilian awards – Padma Bhushan and Padma, Srinivasan’s TVS Motors – emerged the third largest two-wheeler manufacturing unit in India.
Bollywood stars
Significantly, it was not just business owners but also professionals and entertainers who amassed enough wealth to enter the Hurun India Rich list. The Badshah of the Indian entertainment industry Shah Rukh Khan, 58, made his debut with a wealth of ₹7,300 crore fuelled largely by his stake in IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders and Red Chillies entertainment.
Other Bollywood stars in the list include Juhi Chawla, Hrithik Roshan, Karan Johar and Amitabh Bachchan.
The cumulative wealth of Hurun India Rich listers at ₹159 lakh crore was more than half of India and higher than the combined GDP of Saudi Arabia and Switzerland.
Youngest billionaires
Payment solution app Razorpay ‘s founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar (both 33) emerged as the youngest billionaires with assets of ₹8,700 crore each.
Zepto founders Kaivalya Vohra (21) and Aadit Palicha (22) were the youngest on the rich list with assets of ₹3,600 crore and ₹4,300 crore, respectively.
With a wealth of ₹1,200 crore, Anand Chandrasekaran (45) was the first angel investor to debut in the Hurun Rich List.
Rising like a phoenix after the Hindenburg allegations, Gautam Adani (62) and family dethroned Mukesh Ambani and family to emerge as the richest Indian. Adani’s wealth increased 95 per cent to ₹11.62 lakh crore. Mukesh Ambani (67) and family’s wealth grew 25 per cent over last year to ₹10.15 lakh crore.
Interestingly, there were 16 professional managers in the rich list led by Jayshree Ullal (63), CEO of cloud networking company Arista Networks with assets of ₹32,100 crore. She was followed by Ignatius Navil Noronha (49) of Avenue Supermarts.