Richest Person in India
There are lots of richest persons in India. Some of them are on the top of the list some are one the bottom. Some of them are also on the list of the richest persons in the world. This ranking usually tends to change as the industry keeps fluctuating and businesses have to go through rise and fall due to the changing government policies, technology and competitive strategies. Let us see the top ten richest persons in India.
- Mukesh Ambani
- Shiv Nadar
- Radhakishan Damani & Family
- Cyrus Poonawalla
- Sunil Mittal
- Uday Kotak
- Gautam Adani
- Lakshmi Mittal
- Kumar Birla
- Azim Premzi
1) Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Ambani, born on 19 April 1957, is the Chairman & Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). He is the richest man in India as well as in the list of world’s wealthiest persons, he occupies the fifth slot or position. As of current information, his net worth is $78.3 billion. Most of his earnings come from the petrochemicals and oil and gas businesses that was established by his father Dhirubhai Ambani. However, Mukesh Ambani has also established various other businesses such as Reliance Jio and Jio Mart, etc. Besides this, he created many world-class manufacturing facilities that increased manufacturing capacities of Reliance multiple times.
Awards and achievements of Mukesh Ambani:
- He was at 42th position in the list of most respected business leaders of the world.
- In 2004, Total Telecom awarded him the world communication award for being the most influential person in the area of telecommunication.
- He became the ‘ET Business leader of the Year 2006′.
- In 2007, he received Chitralekha Person of the Year Award’ from Govt. of India and the ‘United States-India Business Council Leadership Award’ from the United States-India Business Council.’
- In 2010, NDTV India named him ‘Business Leader of the Year.’
- In 2014, Forbes listed him at 36th position on the list of the world’s most powerful people.
- In 2017, he was awarded the ‘ET Business Leader Award’ for ‘Corporate Excellency.’
- In 2018, Fortune Magazine ranked him in the 50 greatest leaders of 2018.
2) Shiv Nadar
Shiv Nadar is the second richest person in India with a net worth of $18 billion. He was born on 14 July 1945 and is the founder and chairman of HCL Technology Limited and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. In the 1970s, he established HCL and was able to transform the IT hardware company into an IT enterprise in the next few decades. Shiv Nadar is the only Indian who could establish the computer industry in India.
In 1967, he started his career in Pune by joining Walchand Group’s Cooper Engineering. He is very much committed for charitable endeavours for that he even decided to keep aside around 10% of this wealth. In 1996, he established SSN College of Engineering in Chennai in the memory of his father Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar.
In March 2008, Nadar’s SSN Trust decided to start seven Vidyagyan Schools for students of villages in UP with the benefits of free scholarships for hundreds of students of ten districts of UP. In July 2020, he handed over the position of Chairman to his daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra.
Awards and Achievements of Shiv Nadar:
- He became the Dataquest IT Man of the year in 1995.
- In 2005 he got the CNBC Business Excellence Award.
- He was accorded with Honorary Fellowship of All India Management Association-AIMA.
- In 2008 he received the Padambhushana from govt. of India for contribution to the IT Industry.
- He was awarded Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
3) Radhakishan Damani & Family
Radhakishan Damani is a famous entrepreneur and investor and is the third richest person in India as of July 2020. He was born on 15 March 1954 and his net worth is around 17.9 billion dollars. In the global list of richest persons, he is at 110th position. He is an experienced Mumbai stock market investor and is the founder and chairman of the supermarket chain DMart.
In 2002, he entered the retailing business by starting a single store in suburban Mumbai. In March 2017, after the IPO of his supermarket chain DMart (a supermarket chain), he became the retail king of India. He has invested in the shares of various renowned companies such as VST Industries, Blue Dart Express Ltd. and United Breweries. He owns the 156-room Radisson Blu beach-front Resort in Alibag. However, he likes to keep a low profile and rarely gives interviews.
4) Cyrus Poonawalla
Cyrus Poonawalla is the chairman and Managing Director of the Poonawalla Group. He was born on 14 January 1981 and is counted among the top ten richest persons in India with a net worth of 12.1 billion dollars. His residence is located in Pune, India and his source of wealth is vaccines. He completed his graduation and doctorate from Pune University.
Poonawalla Group of companies owns the Serum Institute of India which is a reputed biotech company of India and is the largest manufacturer of the vaccine in the world in terms of the number of doses produced and sold globally. The Poonawalla Group is also expanded into Finance, Hospitality, Clean Energy, Aviation and Reality. It expanded into finance by establishing Poonawalla Finance.
Cyrus Poonawalla founded Serum Institute in 1966 and within two years developed and introduced its first therapeutic anti-tetanus serum and started the production of anti-tetanus vaccines. It produces 1.5 billion doses in a year of a wide range of vaccines such as polio, flu and measles. The Serum Institute of India is also involved in the co-development of COVID-19 vaccines with other reputed pharma companies.
Awards and Achievements of Cyrus Poonawalla:
- He is awarded Gold Award for the film ‘Snakebite’ by the British Medical Association in 1987.
- On 31st January 1991, he received ‘Man of the Year-Mother India International Gold Award’ by NRI Institute, New Delhi.
- He was awarded ‘Rajat Kumar National Award’ for the film entitled ‘The Triumph’ on 6th May 1992.
- For excellence in the Corporate World, he was awarded the ‘Pune’s Pride Award’ in 1998.
- Received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his contribution to horse racing and breeding on 5th October 2009.
- In the area of Life Sciences and Health Care, he was awarded ‘Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007’ award.
5) Sunil Mittal
Sunil Mittal is a famous Telecom tycoon in India. He is one of the richest men in India with a net worth of 11.6 billion dollars. He is the chairman and founder of Bharti Enterprises that is engaged in various businesses such as education, telecom, real estate, insurance, hospitality, and more. Sunil Mittal is also the owner of Airtel Payment Bank which is a niche bank started after a joint venture with a Kotak Mahindra Bank.
He is the owner of Bharti Airtel which one of the largest mobile phone operators. He was born on 23 October 1957 in the district of Ludhiana Punjab. He did Bachelor of Arts and Science from the Punjab University Chandigarh in 1976. In the same year, he started his career by starting a business of making crankshafts for local manufacturers of the bicycle.
He brought mobile revolution in India. His company Bharti Airtel updated business model to offer affordable services related to voice and data services. He has also founded Bharti Foundation for the welfare of society, charity, etc. It runs around 200 Satya Bharti Schools and also supports over 700 government schools to improve education in rural India.
Awards and Achievements of Sunil Mittal:
- In 2006 he was named as the Asia Businessman of the Year by the Fortune Magazine.
- He received the Padma Bhushan in 2007.
- He once became the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.
- In 2009, he was selected in the list of Top 25 Philanthropists in the World by the Barron Magazine.
- In 2010, at The Asian Awards, he was awarded ‘Philanthropist of the Year’ award. In the same year, he received Corporate Citizen of the Year Award for Corporate Excellence.
6) Uday Kotak
Uday Kotak is the founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank. He is one of the richest persons in India with a net worth of 11.5 billion dollars and is the Vice Chairman and the Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
He was born on March 15th 1959 in Mumbai, India. He was from an upper-middle-class family engaged in cotton traders which later entered other commodities. He married Pallavi Kotak in 1985 and have two children.
He started his business by entering into the finance business after completing his graduation. He got his first success when he started a finance entity to provide working capital to Nelco, a subsidiary of Tata. After this success, Kotak entered bill discounting proceeding with the same strategies. After this, Uday Kotak set up his company Kotak Mahindra with an investment of Rs 30 Lakh and with 50% stake in the business.
Later Anand Mahindra invested a huge amount in Uday Kotak’s business so the name of Uday’s finance company was named Kotak Mahindra. Over time, the Kotak Mahindra group expanded into several businesses such as investment banking, car finance, life insurance, stock broking, mutual funds, and more.
Awards and Achievements won by Uday Kotak:
- In 2010 he was awarded ‘Most Valuable CEO’ award by Business World.
- In 2009 he received ‘Asian Asset Manager of the year’ award.
- In 2006 he received ‘Innovator of the Year Award’ by CNBC.
- In 2003, he got the Ernst and Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’.
- At Davos, he was honoured as one of the ‘Global Leaders of Tomorrow’ at the World Economic Forum.’
- He also got a slot in the list of top financial leaders of 21st century by Euromoney Magazine.
7) Gautam Adani
Gautam Adani is the chairman and founder of the Adani Group. He is an Indian billionaire industrialist with a net worth of 10.8 billion dollars. He was born on 24 June 1962 and founded the Adani Group in 1988 and expanded his business by entering logistics, energy, defence, aerospace, and more. He is engaged in coal mining, exploration of gas and oil, power generation, ports, etc. As of now, the Adani group is the biggest port operator in India.
He was a school dropout and was not interested in the textile business of his family. He started his career as a diamond broker in Mumbai and within three years at the age of 20, he became a self-made millionaire.
He is known for his negotiation skills. He closed a deal of obtaining thermal power plant in Rs 6000 crore within 100 hours. Today, Adani power limited is the largest private power produced in the country. The Adani group offers 3% of the Group’s earning for charity.
Awards and Achievements of Gautam Adani:
- The Chief Minister of Gujarat awarded him the ‘Excellence in Management Award (2007).’
- The Mundra Port and SEZ of Adani group received the ‘Authority Award 2006’ for being the best port in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East.
- In 2004, the Adani Group was awarded the ‘ICSI award for Excellence in Corporate Governance.’
- In 2003, it was at 38th position in BS 1000 India’s Corporate Giants.
8) Lakshmi Mittal
Lakshmi Mittal is one of the wealthiest billionaires in India and in the world. He is the CEO and Chairman of ArcelorMittal. His net worth is 10.5 billion dollars as of 2019. Lakshmi Mittal was born on 15 June 1950 in the district of Churu in Rajasthan. He did his graduation in Business and Accounting from St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta in 1969.
He started his career with his family’s steel making business in India. In 1976, he founded PT. Ispat Indo. Over time, he acquired many companies in Germany, Canada and Kazakhstan to make his enterprise a global player. In 1989, he was able to turn a loss-making government firm in Tobago and Trinidad, which was making a loss of 1 million dollars per day, into a profitable business.
He acquired the International Steel Group in Ohio and created TMittal Steel Company N.V. which was the largest steelmaker of the world in that time. In 2004, he merged his two companies namely LNM Holdings and Ispat International and formed Mittal Steel which was merged with French steelmaker Arcelor to form ArcelorMittal in 2006.
Awards and Achievements of Lakshmi Narayan Mittal:
- In 2004, he was named as ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ by Wall Street Journal.
- In 2005, he was ranked as the third-richest person in the world by Forbes.
- In the list of ‘Most Powerful People’ 72 by the Forbes, he was the 52th most powerful person.
- In 2007, he was listed by the Time magazine in their ‘Time 100’ list.
- In 2007, he received the Padma Vibhushan by the President of India.
- In 2019, he was named by Forbes in the list of India’s Richest 2019.
9) Kumar Birla
Kumar Birla is the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. His net worth is 9.6 billion dollars. He was borne on 14 June 1967 in a Marwari business family and his complete name is Kumar Mangalam Birla. He became the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group in 1995 after the sudden demise of his father. Along with taking care of the exiting business, he expanded into other areas like Software, Telecom, BPO, etc. He chairs all of the major companies of Aditya Birla Group in India and abroad.
He did B.Com degree from the University of Bombay. Later he joined the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and became a Chartered Accountant. Later he did an MBA from London Business School, London, UK.
Kumar Mangalam Birla increased the Group’s turnover from 2 billion dollars in 1995 to 48 billion dollars as of now. He has emerged as a global leader in all the sectors in which Aditya Birla Group is operating. The group has made more than 40 acquisitions within 20 years.
The recent merger of Idea and Vodafone is also planned by Kumar Birla to withstand the competition and grow in a competitive environment. He is also closely associated with education. He holds the position of Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS). He is also the Chairman of IIM, Ahmedabad and Director of the G.D Birla Medical Research & Education Foundation.
Awards and Achievements of Kumar Birla:
- In 2003, he became ‘The Business Leader of the Year’ as declared by the Economic Times. In the same year, he was honoured with the status of ‘Businessman of the Year’ by Business India.
- In 2005, he was honoured with the ‘The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year-India.’
- In 2007, he was titled the NDTV’s ‘Global Indian Leader of the Year’ and in the same year, the Outlook business magazine named him ‘The Most Socially Responsible Leader’.
- In 2009, Bombay Management Association awarded him the ‘Entrepreneur of the Decade Award.’
- In 2017, he was honoured with ‘Outstanding Businessman of the Year 2017’ by CNBC-TV18-IBLA.
- In 2019, he was conferred ABLF Global Asian Award.
10) Azim Premzi
Azim Premzi is a famous Indian business tycoon, investor and philanthropist with a net worth of 8.3 billion dollars. He is the founder of Wipro Limited and is known as the Czar of the IT Industry in India. He was born on 24 July 1945 in Mumbai in a Muslim family and his full name is Azim Hashim Premji. Azim Premji did his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA.
After the demise of his father in 1966, He returned to India from the USA and took charge of the Wipro. In the 1980s, when the IBM was excluded from India, he understood the importance of the IT industry and entered IT industry and started manufacturing minicomputers with the technical support of Sentinel Computer Corporation, an American Company.
He is also a great philanthropist. He established a non-profit organization named Azim Premji Foundation to improve the school education in India. Besides this, he is also the first person in India to sign ‘The Giving Pledge’ started by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.
Awards and Achievement of Azim Premji:
- He was awarded the honorary doctorate in 2015 by the University of Mysore.
- In 2000, he received an honorary doctorate from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
- In 2009, he was honoured with an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University located in Connecticut for the philanthropic efforts and work.
- In 2005, he received Padma Bhushan for contribution to trade and commerce.
- In 2006, National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai has given Lakshya Business Visionary award to Azim Premzi.
- In 2011, he was awarded Padma Vibhushan by govt. of India.
In 2017, he was at 9th position in the list of India’s most powerful people by India Today magazine.