Mukesh Ambani continues to rule Forbes India rich list, followed by Adani; no woman in top 10

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani topped the Forbes' India's 100 Richest People list for the 12th year in a row.

According to Forbes, Ambani "added $4.1 billion to his net worth as Jio, a three-year old telecom unit of his Reliance Industries, became one of India’s biggest mobile carriers with 340 million subscribers."

The 62-year-old petrochemical and telecom boss, with a net worth of $51.4 billion, is followed by ports tycoon Gautam Adani. The 57-year-old runs the Adani Group that works in power generation and transmission, edible oil, real estate and defence.


There was a huge gap in the wealth of the two tycoons at the first and second spot, with Adani at $15.7 billion.

The Hinduja brothers, Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok, who control the Hinduja Group came on the third spot with a collective wealth of $15.6 billion.

Pallonji Mistry, who runs the 154-year-old engineering and construction giant Shapoorji Pallonji Group, followed at number 4. The 90-year-old has a net worth of $15 billion.

Kotak Mahindra Bank's Uday Kotak ($14.8 billion) was at the fifth spot, followed by HCL's Shiv Nadar, who has a net worth of $14.4 billion.

Other names in the top 10 included Radhakishan Damani ($ 14.3 billion), the Godrej family ($12 billion), Lakshmi Mittal ($10.5 billion), and Kumar Birla ($9.6 billion).

There were no women in the top 10, and only three made it to the top 100. At $5.8 billion, Jindal Group matriarch Savitri Jindal is at number 20, followed by Biocon boss Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw ($2.38 billion) at number 54, and pharma giant USV India's Leena Tewari - with a worth of $1.92 billion - at 71.

38-year-old Byju Raveendran is the youngest billionaire on the list, ranking at the 72nd spot. With a net worth of $1.91 billion, the edu-tech startup boss made his debut on the list this year.

According to Forbes, that publishes the list, the net worth of more than half the list members fell.