Forty more Indians break into billionaires’ club despite pandemic-hit 2020

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With another forty Indians turning billionaires' in pandemic-hit 2020, the total headcount of the country’s super-rich list has gone up to 177, according to the Hurun Global Rich List report released on Tuesday.</p>
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Mukesh Ambani continued to be the wealthiest Indian with a networth of USD 83 billion. The head of Reliance Industries witnessed a 24 per cent jump in fortunes and climbed up one spot to be the eighth richest globally, as per the Hurun Global Rich List.</p>
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Gautam Adani saw his wealth almost doubling to USD 32 billion in 2020 and climbed 20 places to be the 48th richest person globally and the second wealthiest Indian. His brother Vinod's wealth grew 128 per cent to USD 9.8 billion.</p>
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IT major HCL's Shiv Nadar was the third wealthiest Indian with a fortune of USD 27 billion while some peers in the tech industry dominated the list of fastest growing wealth.</p>
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Jay Chaudhry of software company Zcaler saw a 274 per cent rise in networth to USD 13 billion during the year while Byju Raveendran and family saw a 100 per cent increase in its wealth to USD 2.8 billion, the report said.</p>
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Diversified corporate house Mahindra Group's head Anand Mahindra and family also saw a 100 per cent increase in wealth to USD 2.4 billion, it said.</p>
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Among those who saw a decline in their networth during the year was Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali Ayurved at USD3.6 billion, down 32 per cent.</p>
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The financial capital continues to lead in the country from a concentration perspective, being home to 60 of the 177 Indian billionaires, followed by New Delhi at 40 and Bengaluru at 22 billionaires, it said.</p>
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From a gender perspective, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon leads with a networth of USD 4.8 billion (up 41 per cent), Smita V Crishna of Godrej at USD 4.7 billion and Lupin's Manju Gupta at USD 3.3 billion.</p>
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A majority of 118 billionaires were classified as self-made ones in the ranking, as against 932 of the 1,058 billionaires in neighbouring China, which is home to the highest number of billionaires.</p>
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Hurun India's Managing Director and Chief Researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said Indian wealth creation is dominated by cyclical or traditional industries compared to tech-driven wealth creation in the US and China.</p>
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"When the tech-driven wealth creation reaches full potential, India could potentially beat USA in terms of the number of billionaires," he added.</p>