Mukesh Ambani India's richest for 9th yr; 12 debuts in top 100

Industrialist Mukesh Ambani has retained the tag as India's richest for the ninth year in a row with a net worth of USD 18.9 billion even as declining macroeconomic barometers flattened the fortunes of the country's uber-rich.

As per Forbes magazine's latest India rich list, Ambani was followed by Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi as second-richest with a net worth of USD 18 billion while Wipro's Azim Premji retained his third place with USD 15.9 billion.

As many as 10 of them saw their net worth dip by over USD 1 billion each in one year, including lakshmi Mittal, whose net worth dropped to USD 4.6 billion (ranked 8th with USD 11.2 billion). His rank too slipped three places.

In the top 10, Hinduja brothers were ranked 4th with USD 15.9 billion, followed by Pallonji Mistry at USD 14.7 billion, Shiv Nadar (USD 12.9 billion), Godrej family (USD 11.4 billion), lakshmi Mittal (11.2 billion), Cyrus Poonawala (USD 7.9 billion) and Kumar Mangalam Birla (USD 7.8 billion).

Forbes said that while the economy is expected to grow by 7 per cent this year, the stock market is off 5 per cent from a year ago and the rupee has fallen 9 per cent. "These declining barometers flattened the fortunes of India's 100 richest, whose combined wealth is nearly unchanged at USD 345 billion from a year ago," the magazine said.

Interestingly, however, amid big decline in fortunes, 12 new faces have made their debut in India 100 rich list and more than half of the 84 who return to the list this year are richer than last year.

The list saw as many as 12 newcomers, including Flipkart's founders and low-cost airline IndiGo's co-founder Rakesh Gangwal, who has debuted at 70th position with a net worth of USD 1.6 billion ahead of his company's IPO.

Gangwal's partner Rahul Bhatia has moved up 12 positions to 38th with a net worth of USD 2.4 billion.

The biggest gainer was vaccine maker Serum's Cyrus Poonawalla whose wealth rose from USD 6.2 billion to USD 7.9 billion, pushing his rank to the 9th position.

The magazine said the minimum threshold for making it to the list has increased from USD 1 billion to USD 1.1 billion in 2015.

Forbes further said the list was compiled using shareholding and financial data obtained from families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and regulators.

The ranking lists family fortunes including those shared among extended families such as in the case of Godrej and Bajaj families while public fortunes were calculated on the basis of share price and exchange rates as on September 11.

The privately-held companies were valued on the basis of their peer group companies that are publicly listed, Forbes said.