Note ban impact? 11 billionaires lose ground, Ambani stays India's richest

Mukesh Ambani has retained the top spot as the richest Indian with a fortune of $26 bn: Hurun list

Ever since the Narendra Modi-led central government decided to crack down on black money and fake currency through demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, 11 wealthy Indians have lost their billionaires tag, shows the Hurun Global Rich List, released on Tuesday. 

"India had a tough year because of disruptive government policies, such as demonetisation drive", said Anas Rahman Junaid, Managing Director and Chief Researcher, Hurun Report India.

"However, on a long term perspective, we do believe that such transparent currency economics will have a positive impact for the entrepreneurs", he added.

Here are the top four richest Indians of 2017

 

Rank 1. Reliance Industries chairman, Mukesh Ambani retained the top spot as the richest Indian with a fortune of $26 billion. The oil and telecom mogul's global rank this year is 28 in the list of 132 individuals. 

Rank 2. S P Hinduja & family (Global Rank: 74): The business tycoon and the primary shareholder and chairman of Hinduja Group has a net worth of $14 billion. The family lives in Carlton House Terrace, in the heart of London's Westminster neighbourhood. All four brothers are known by the initials GP, SP, PP and AP. The conglomerate's Hinduja National Power Corp. unit is setting up a 1,040-megawatt thermal power plant in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Rank 3. Dilip Shanghvi Global Rank: 74): India’s richest pharma magnate and the founder of Sun Pharmaceuticals, drops to 3rd position because of a 22% decline in his wealth of $14bn, fueled by 18% drop of Sun Pharma shares, his flagship company.

Rank 4. Pallonji Mistry (Global Rank: 97): Mistry is the largest individual shareholder in Tata Sons. He is worth $12bn equaling the entire market capitalization of Tata Motors, one of India’s largest automaker. Cyrus Mistry's removal as the Chairman of Tata Sons’ has cast a shadow on the ties between the two families and hence the dispute has affected value of his 18% stake in Tata Sons.

According to the report, 132 Indians or Indian origin billionaires' net worth is $1 billion or more

Highlights:

* Mumbai is home to 42 billionaires followed by New Delhi (21) and Ahmedabad (9).

* Mumbai and Delhi have added 6 billionaires this year and Bangalore has lost 8.

* 27 new additions and 31 dropouts - almost 1/3rd of the list has been replaced.

* Divyank Turakhia, aged 35, is the youngest billionaire in India with net worth of $1.2 billion



On the global front, Beijing beat New York City to become the "Billionaire Capital of the World" for the second year running.

The new list ranked 2,257 billionaires, up 69 from last year and a growth of 55 percent or 804 over the last five years.

Total wealth among billionaires increased by 16 percent to $8.0 trillion, equivalent to 10.7 percent of global GDP, and up from 7 percent of global GDP five years ago.

New York has the highest concentration of billionaires, with 86, followed by San Francisco and Los Angeles on 29 and 23 respectively. The USA is the world's capital for immigrant billionaires. Two-thirds self-made, with one-third inherited. Average age among USA billionaires increased to 66, two higher than the list average.

Bill Gates, 61, is still the richest man in the world, despite only growing 1 percent to $81bn. Warren Buffett, 86, held onto second place, increasing his wealth to $78 billion, up $10 billion after a surge in the Berkshire Hathaway share price.

Jeff Bezos, 53, of Amazon, has broken into the Top 3 for the first time. Mark Zuckerberg, 32, the youngest of the Top 10, shot up to fifth, his highest ranking yet.

Chinese billionaires led the USA for the second year running, with 609 compared with 552, up 41 and 17 respectively. Hoogewerf said "China and the USA have half the billionaires in the world."