Mumbai : Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd head Mukesh Ambani continues to be the richest Indian and has now broken into the world’s top 10 wealthiest persons in the latest Forbes 2024 Billionaire List.
Ambani, 66, is ranked ninth on the list with a wealth of USD 116 billion, up from USD 83.4 billion in the 2023 ranking, according to Forbes.
Gautam Adani is the second richest Indian and is ranked at No. 17 on the global list. He is worth USD 84 billion, up from USD 47.2 billion in 2023 when his apples-to-airport conglomerate was rocked by a damning report by US short-seller Hindenburg Research. The Adani group has denied all allegations in the report. Adani, 61, was worth USD 90 billion in the 2022 ranking.
The Forbes 2024 Billionaires List features 2,781 individuals, an increase of 141 names from last year’s list. The billionaires, according to the list, are richer than ever, worth USD 14.2 trillion in aggregate, up by USD 2 trillion from 2023 and USD 1.1 trillion above the previous record, also set in 2021.
Two-thirds of the list’s members are worth more than a year ago; only one-fourth are poorer.
Fashion and cosmetics giant LVMH’s Bernard Arnault is at the top of the list with USD 233 billion wealth, followed by Elon Musk with USD 195 billion and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos with USD 194 billion.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg comes next in the list with a net worth of USD 177 billion.
The US has a record 813 billionaires followed by China with 473 billionaires. India added 31 billionaires to the list compared to last year with the number now reaching 200.
“To calculate net worths, we used stock prices and exchange rates from March 8, 2024,” Forbes said.
Other Indians on the list include IT pioneer and HCL co-founder Shiv Nadar at No. 39 with USD 36.9 billion wealth, Jindal group’s Savitri Jindal and family at No. 46 with USD 33.5 billion, Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi at No. 69 with USD 26.7 billion, vaccine maker Cyrus Poonawalla at No 90 with USD 21.3 billion, property baron Kushal Pal Singh at No 92 with USD 20.9 billion, and commodities king Kumar Bila at No 98 with USD 19.7 billion.
