India added 3 billionaires a month in 2019

Mumbai: India added more than three dollar billionaires every month in 2019, taking the tally to 138 that has helped the country to feature at the third position globally, says a report.

China and the US occupied the first and second spot with 799 and 626 billionaires, respectively. In total, India got 34 new billionaires to take the count to 138 on the list, topped by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries with $67 billion in networth, minting Rs 7 crore every hour, and the number jumps to 170 if Indian-origin billionaires outside the country are tallied.

According to the ninth edition of the Hurun Global Rich List 2020, which has a list of 2,817 individuals across the globe having a networth of $1 billion or more, the world has added 480 billionaires in 2019, more than one a day, while China added more than three a week and India did more than three billionaires a month.

However, according to the report, with 799 China is home to more billionaires than the US (626) and India combined and is set to add many more pharma billionaires this year as the communist nation fights a deadly coronavirus epidemic that has already killed more than 2,710 people since mid-January.

There is no surprise that Mumbai is the home to more than a third of the richest individuals in the country with 50 of them living in the megapolis, making it the ninth richest city globally, followed by New Delhi with 30, Bengaluru with 17 and Ahmedabad with 12.

With $67 billion, Ambani is also the ninth richest in the world which is topped by Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $140 billion.

The second in the list is SP Hinduja family ($27 billion), Gautam Adani (a little over $17 billion), Shiv Nadar & family (close to $17 billion), and Lakshmi Mittal with over $15 billion in networth.