Patanjali CEO Is Richer Than Airtel Founder; Mukesh Ambani Richer Than Yemen!

Hurun’s annual list of India’s wealthiest persons have been released, and there are some major surprises here.

The biggest of them all is the startling rise in wealth of Patanjali’s major stakeholder and managing director: Acharya Balkrishna, who is now worth a staggering Rs 70,000 crore.

He had made his debut in the prestigious Hurun list last year, when he was placed at #25.

But this year, within a gap of 12 months, he is now placed as India’s 8th wealthiest person with total assets of Rs 70,000 crore.

But numero-uno position in this list has been again retained by Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries. In the last one year, his wealth increased by 58%, despite investing heavily in expansion of Jio telecom.

Top 10 Wealthiest Indians

Here is the top 10 list of wealthiest Indians, as per Hurun List:

Mukesh Ambani from Reliance Industries: Assets worth Rs 2.57 lakh crore; increased by 58% since last year Dilip Shanghvi from Sun Pharma: Assets worth Rs 89,000 crore; decreased by 27% since last year LN Mittal from Mittal Steel: Assets worth Rs 88,200 crore; increased by 32% since last year Shiv Nadar from HCL: Assets worth Rs 85,100 crore; increased by 16% since last year Azim Premji from Wipro: Assets worth Rs 79, 300crore; increased by 6% since last year Cyrus S Poonawalla from Serum Institute of India: Assets worth Rs 71,100; decreased by 9% since last year Gautam Adani from Adani Group: Assets worth Rs 70,600 crore; increased by 66% since last year Acharya Balkrishna from Patanjali: Assets worth Rs 70,000 crore; increased by 173% since last year Uday Kotak from Kotak Mahindra Bank: Assets worth Rs 62,700 crore; increased by 21% since last year Sunil Mittal & Family from Airtel: Assets worth Rs 56,500 crore; increased by 12% since last year

Some major highlights from the report:

Divyank Turakhia, founder of Direct1, is now the richest under-40 Indian as of now, with assets worth Rs 11,500 crore. Last year, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma was at #1 under this category, who has now slipped to #2 with assets worth Rs 9000 crore

Radhakishan Damani, owner of Avenue Supermarts was the biggest gainer in wealth. His assets grew by whooping 321% in the last 12 months, to reach Rs 29,700 crore.

LN Mittal, founder of Mittal Steel, which is world’s largest producer of steel is the richest NRI as of now, with total assets worth Rs 88,200 crore

In terms of family wealth, Godrej is the richest business conglomerate with assets worth Rs 1.89 lakh crore; followed by Hinduja Group at Rs 97,328 crore and Adani at Rs 86,275 crore

Eklavya Juneja (24) of Mankind Pharma is the youngest entrant in the list. He owns 12% of Mankind Pharma, founded by his father Rajeev Juneja

Mumbai has the highest number of individuals in this list: 182 people, followed by New Delhi: 117 and Bengaluru: 51.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the richest self-made woman in this list, with assets worth Rs 15,400 crore. She is the founder of Biocon. Vembu Radha from Zoho is at 2nd position in this list, with assets worth Rs 4500 crore.

Kushal Pal Singh (86) of DLF is the richest real estate baron, with assets worth Rs 27,400 crore.

Overall, most number of billionaires in Hurun List came from Pharmaceuticals, as they constitute 13% of all wealthiest people. FMCG is at #2, and Chemicals & Petrochemicals at #3.

You can find the full report here.