India now has 1,007 individuals having wealth of over ₹1,000 crore across 119 cities, according to the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021.
Mukesh Ambani at ₹7.18 lakh crore is the richest Indian for the tenth year in a row, while Gautam Adani surged to the second spot on the list at ₹5.05 lakh crore, boosted by the 261% growth in wealth.
The number of entrants in IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List crossed 1,000 for the first time from under 100 a decade ago. The number of billionaires in India increased to 237 this year, up 58 compared to last year.
According to the report, 894 individuals saw their wealth increase or stay the same. The list saw 229 additions, while113 saw their wealth decline. 51 individuals or families dropped out of the list.
There are four new faces in the top 10 list including Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal and Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla Group. Jay Chaudhury of California-based enterprise cloud cyber security firm Zscaler also made it to the top 10 for the first time.
The chemicals and software sectors added the highest number of new entrants to the list, while pharma retained its number one position, contributing130 entrants on the list. Wealth creation by industry has seen a shuffle. Software and Services has risen to the third spot, up from fifth a decade ago. Chemicals as a sector was absent ten years ago but is the second-highest wealth creator this year. The pandemic boosted the chemicals and petrochemicals sector and hit the jewellery sector hard, which witnessed 12 dropouts and eroded ₹3,000 crore of wealth compared to last year.
Home to 25% of the list, Mumbai is the preferred city for India’s biggest wealth creators, followed by New Delhi and Bengaluru. New Delhi registered a net increase of 39 individuals followed by Mumbai, which registered a net increase of 38.
With 302 and167 entrants respectively, Maharashtra and New Delhi are the preferred states of residence for individuals on the list. Gujarat added 15 rich individuals, overtaking Tamil Nadu to fourth place.
