According to the Hurun Global Rich List 2020, India jumped two spots to rank third in a global billionaires list despite economic slowdown in 2019.
The rich list is a compilation of the richest 3,000 people across the world with a net worth of $1 billion or more. While the top ten billionaires are familiar names like Jeff Bezos (#1), Bill Gates (#3), Mark Zuckerberg (#5) and Mukesh Ambani (#9), India has added 34 new names to the list to have a total of 138 billionaires in the country.
Data reveals that Mumbai hosts 50 billionaires followed by New Delhi with 30 billionaires and Bengaluru with 17 billionaires.
“A boom in tech valuations and strong stock markets across the US, India and China have propelled the billionaires to record highs,” explains Hurun Report Chihairman and Chief Researcher, Rupert Hoogewerf.
Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd, was the only Asian in the top 10, but other Indian billionaires witnessed improvements in their net worth. Gautam Adani of Adani Group saw an increase from $7.1 billion to $17 billion while Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel Ltd, saw an increase of $1 billion.
Uday Kotak, chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd, joined the top 100 list this year at $15 billion.
Anas Rahman Junaid, Hurun Report India MD and Chief Researcher, said that Indian billionaires are “defying gravity” and that structural slowdown in the economy did not dampen the growth of their wealth.