With $103 billion wealth Mukesh Ambani is Asia's richest; Gautam Adani richer by $49 bn in a year

Reliance Industries Limited Chairman Mukesh Ambani is Asia's richest man with $103 billion wealth, a whopping 24 per cent jump in a year, while Nykaa founder Falguni Nayar has become the newest billionaire in India, according to Global Rich List report compiled by research platform Hurun.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani is the second richest man in India. He added the most amount of wealth in a year. Adani's wealth surged by $49 billion in a year, taking his net worth to $81 billion. Adani's wealth increased by around Rs 6,000 crore every week over the last year.

The research platform Hurun has compiled the rich list in association with real estate firm M3M. The report titled '2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List' ranked 3381 billionaires from 2557 companies and 69 countries. Out of the total 3381 billionaires, wealth of 2071 increased in the last one year, while the wealth of 942 people declined. 490 were new faces joined the billionaire club during the year.

With 215 Billionaires residing in India and 58 new additions, India continues to be the third largest billionaire producing nation in the world. The number rises to 249 if Indian origin billionaires are added.

China has 1133 billionaires almost 5 times bigger than India with 215 billionaires.

In the last 10 years, Indian billionaires have added $700 billion to their cumulative wealth. This is equivalent to Switzerland's GDP and twice the GDP of United Arab Emirates.

Mumbai is home to 72 billionaires, followed by New Delhi 51 and Bengaluru 28.

"India has 18 per cent of the world's population and 8 per cent of the world's 'known' billionaires, up from 50 per cent compared to last year. Of the 34 living outside of India, the preferred residences were the USA, the UAE and the UK," Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher said in a statement.

Mumbai and New Delhi are amongst the top three cities with the fastest-growing number of billionaires in the world. 215 Indian billionaires in 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List hail from 21 cities.

"To give a perspective, the billionaires from US, China and Germany hail from 240, 135 and 68 cities respectively. India's plutocratic makeover has some catching up to do when it comes to geographic spread. Some of the Government projects such as the Smart-City initiative, Digital India and so on will catalyse rapid urbanisation that could accelerate wealth distribution across the country," the report said.

"Interestingly, 59 per cent of the country's billionaires are self-made, thus indicating that the new-generation entrepreneurs are financially-wise, asset-rich and investment-vibrant. Also, gender inclusivity and equality has been a noticeable theme with women outranking men across industries," said Pankaj Bansal, Director, M3M India.

The year was also a moment of reckoning for India's startup ecosystem which witnessed major startup IPOs including 4 companies in Hurun Global Unicorn Index. 2021's IPO story began with a bang but fizzled out towards the end owing to bubble concerns. 10 Tech companies that listed in 2021 cumulatively lost $23 billion or Rs 1,72,000 crore since listing, resulting in a momentary pause of the tech IPO.

( With inputs from ANI )

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