Mukesh Ambani joins Asia’s top five richest

Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani on Thursday emerged as India's wealthiest for the 10th straight year as his net worth swelled to $38 billion (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore) while the wealth of 100 richest rose by 26 per cent despite economic hiccups.

Wipro’s Azim Premji was the distant second with a net worth of $19 billion, moving up two places from last year, while Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi slipped from his earlier second place to the ninth now ($12.1 billion) on Forbes magazine’s annual ‘India Rich List 2017’.

Forbes said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “economic experiments” barely affected India’s billionaires while none gained more than oil-and-gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani, who cemented his decade-long hold on the top slot by adding a staggering $15.3 billion (67 per cent) to his last year’s wealth to become one of Asia's top five richest.

Anil Ambani, Mukesh’s younger brother, was ranked much lower at 45th place with $3.15 billion. He was ranked 32nd in 2016 ($3.4 billion) and 29th a year before that.

Another Gujarati businessman Gautam Adani has moved up to 10th position ($11 billion), from 13th rank last year, as his networth rose from $6.3 billion.

Forbes described Mr Adani as a college dropout, who spurned his father’s textile shop to set up a commodities export firm in 1988. It also said Mr Adani survived the terrorist attack in Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in 2008.

Patanjali Ayurved’s Acharya Balkrishna, known as a close associate of Ramdev, made a big jump from 48th place last year to 19th now with a net worth of $6.55 billion (about Rs 43,000 crore).

“Despite India’s economic hiccups, tycoons on the 2017 Forbes India Rich List saw their wealth soar as their combined fortunes rose 26 per cent to $479 billion (over Rs 31 lakh crore),” the magazine said.

The richest newcomer is cookies-and-airline tycoon Nusli Wadia at the 25th place with a net worth of $5.6 billion. Among the five other new entrants to the list are Dinesh Nandwana (88, $1.72 billion) of e-governance services firm Vakrangee; Vijay Shekhar Sharma (99, $1.47 billion) of fast-rising mobile wallet Paytm and Rana Kapoor (100, $1.46 billion) of Yes Bank.