Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani maintained his numero uno spot with $51.4 billion.

The past year has proved challenging for the India's "wealth creators" as Forbes' 2019 list of business tycoons saw their total wealth dropping by 8 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, had said that that the country's wealth creators help in reducing poverty and deserve respect and encouragement.

The Forbes India Rich List 2019 showed industrialist Gautam Adani jumped 8 spots on the list to become the second richest Indian with net worth of $15.7 billion while Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani maintained his numero uno spot with $51.4 billion.

"In all, 14 were poorer by $1 billion or more, and nine members from last year's ranks dropped off. More than a third of that decline was due to the remarkable largesse of tech tycoon Azim Premji, who gave away a chunk of his fortune in March and consequently dropped in the ranks to No 17 from No 2," Forbes said.

Ashok Leyland owners Hinduja brothers stood third with a net worth of $15.6 billion, Shapoorji Pallonji Group's Pallonji Mistry occupied the fourth spot with a $15 billion net worth, Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak was ranked fifth with $14.8 billion net worth followed by HCL Technologies' Shiv Nadar with a net worth of $14.4 billion.

"Mukesh Ambani remains the richest Indian for the 12th year in a row. He added $4.1 billion to his net worth as Jio, a three-year-old telecom unit of his Reliance Industries, became one of India's biggest mobile carriers with 340 million subscribers," Forbes said.

The list saw six new debutants including Byju's Founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran at no 72 with net wealth of $1.91 billion, Manohar Lal and Madhusudan Agarwal of Haldiram Snacks at no 86 with net worth of $1.7 billion, Rajesh Mehra of Jaquar, at no 95 with $1.5 billion net worth and Sandeep Engineer of Astral Poly Technik with $1.45 billion net worth.