New Delhi: The wealth of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his family nearly quadrupled over the last year, growing from Rs 1.40 lakh crore to hit Rs 5.05 lakh crore, according to new data put out by the Hurun India rich list.This massive increase in wealth allowed Adani to become Asia’s richest man after Mukesh Ambani, the ‘IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List’ showed, overtaking China’s bottled water king Zhong Shanshan.“With Rs 7,18,000 crore, Mukesh Ambani, 64, retains the richest Indian title for the 10th year running,” the wealth assessment exercise noted.For the first time, both Adani brothers feature in the top 10 list, with Vinod Shantilal Adani breaking in after his wealth tripled to Rs 1.31 lakh crore.The Adani group has a combined market capitalisation of Rs 9 lakh crore. Except Adani Power, all listed companies are valued at more than Rs 1 lakh crore.“Gautam Adani is the only Indian to build not one, but five Rs 1 lakh crore companies,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher, Hurun India.Cyrus Poonawalla, whose vaccine manufacturing company Serum Institute of India has supplied nearly 90% of the COVID-19 doses that have been administered in India, also saw his family wealth increase by 74% during the past year. Their collective wealth stands at Rs 1.63 lakh crore, according to the list.Others who make up the top ten are HCL’s Shiv Nadar, Hinduja group’s S.P. Hinduja, ArcelorMittal’s Lakshmi Mittal, Radhakishan Damani of Avenue Supermarket, Aditya Birla Group’s Kumar Mangalam Birla and Zscaler’s Jay Chaudhry.Broader wealth also upThe IIFL Wealth-Hurun India Rich List 2021 also notes that 1,007 individuals across 119 Indian cities have a net worth of Rs 1,000 crore or more.The report cited that cumulative wealth was up 51%, while average wealth increased by 25%.Besides this, it showed that 894 individuals saw their wealth increase or stay the same over the last year, while 113 saw their wealth drop and there were 51 dropouts.Currently, India has 237 billionaires, up 58 compared to last year.With an increase of 293%, Jayant Shamji Chheda and family of Prince Pipes and Fittings are the biggest gainers this year on the Hurun list, followed by Yadu Hari Dalmia and family (286%) of Dalmia Bharat.The tenth annual IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021 used September 15, 2021 as the cut-off date and the rate of exchange to the dollar was taken at Rs 73.46. The list features only Indians, defined as those born or brought up in India.
