Forbes India rich list 2019: Mukesh Ambani retains top spot, Adani leaps to second

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries' Chairman Mukesh Ambani has once again bagged the top spot in Forbes' list of the richest Indians for the year 2019. This is the 12th time in a row that Ambani -- whose wealth swelled to $51.4 billion this year -- has topped the list.

Infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani, jumped eight spots to no.2 this year with a net worth of $15.7 billion on the back of permission he secured after a nine-year wait to start work on an Australian coal mine. He has also ventured into a slew of new businesses from airports to data centers. PM Modi’s friend Adani almost tripled his net worth within a short time.

The effect of a slowing economy was visible on the list. Overall, the total wealth of tycoons on the 2019 Forbes India Rich List shrank 8 percent to $452 billion from a year ago and more than half of India’s 100 richest saw a decline in their net worth, the magazine said.

Mukesh Ambani’s brother Anil Ambani who was 68th on the list in 2018, didn’t make it to the list this time. Tech giant Wipro’s Chairman Azim Premji dropped 15 places to 17th after he made a massive donation to charity.

Ambani and Adani were followed by the Hinduja brothers (net worth of $15.6 billion), Pallonji Mistry ($15 billion), and banker Uday Kotak ($14.8 billion).

Six newcomers made their debut on this year’s list: The Singh family (no. 41, $3.18 billion), who inherited the fortune of pharma magnate Samprada Singh, founder of Alkem Laboratories, who died in July this year; Byju Raveendran (no. 72, $1.91 billion), the 38-year-old founder of fast-rising ed-tech unicorn Byju’s; Mahendra Prasad (no. 81, $1.77 billion) of Aristo Pharmaceuticals; Manohar Lal and Madhusudan Agarwal (No. 86, $1.7 billion) of Delhi-headquartered Haldiram Snacks; Rajesh Mehra (no. 95, $1.5 billion), whose family owns the popular sanitary ware brand Jaquar, and Sandeep Engineer (no. 98, $1.45 billion) of Astral Poly Technik.

In his Independence Day speech, PM Modi had said that the wealthiest in the nation are helping to reduce poverty.