One hundred and forty-nine individuals have now entered the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022, a comprehensive report on Indians with a net worth of over Rs. 1,000 crore.
The list contains a massive 1,103 such individuals, all presenting a cumulative wealth of a million crore in rupees — more than the GDP of Singapore, UAE, and Saudi Arabia combined. Three spots in the top 10 list of new additions were taken up by the Vakil family with holdings in Asian Paints. Nehal Abhay Vakil, with a net worth of Rs. 11,700 crores, tops the list, whereas, Vivek Abhay Vakil and Bhairavi Abhay Vakil were ranked fourth and seventh respectively.
Notably, the list’s #1 spot traded hands from Mukesh Ambani to Gautam Adani, following the latter’s massive net worth boost in 2022, which has seen the tycoon earn over Rs. 1600 crores every 24 hours and stand atop a huge Rs. 10.94 trillion fortune — nearly 10% of the list’s total wealth.
“The number of entrants to the list has increased by 60% in the past five years”, said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher, Hurun India. “The new additions to IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List have occurred at a time when valuations are at a low, both in the listed and privately held companies. India is best positioned to capitalize on robust domestic demand, a stable political landscape, favourable demographics, and a sustainable external debt.”
A Positive Start-up Story
The list, despite having plenty of big-name players, also features 100 startup founders, 65 of whom are all at the helm of unicorns.
Leading this elite club is Nykaa CEO Falguni Nayar, who is currently worth Rs. 38,700 crores, followed by Byju Raveendran of Byju’s at Rs. 30,600 crores, Radha Vembu of Zoho at Rs. 30,500 crores, and Nithin Kamath of Zerodha, with Rs. 24,000 crores. (Nayar’s 345% wealth jump also overtook Biocon’s executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to become the richest self-made Indian woman.)
“India has the third-highest number of unicorns and gazelles (fast-growing enterprises with base revenues of $100,000 or more) in the world. IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022 has 100 entrants from 59 startups and, going forward, the share of startups is likely to increase manifold. This has resulted in more young entrepreneurs entering the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List. For instance, the youngest ten years ago was 37, last year was 23 and this year is 19,” added Junaid, referencing Zepto’s 19-year-old CTO Kaivalya Vohra, who is currently worth Rs. 1,000 crores.
Other unicorn founders featured on the list include Zeta’s Bhavin Turakhia; Eruditus’ Ashwin Damera; BrowserStack’s Nakul Aggarwal and Ritesh Arora; Ashish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra of Ofbusiness. Collectively, all startup founders were valued at Rs. 5.06 trillion, and were relatively young at an average age of 40.
Fascinating Wealth Insights
Amusingly, the report also shared a zodiac sign element to their analysis — with the data showing that over 45% of the richest Indians belonged to Scorpio, Virgo, Leo, Gemini and Cancer, the latter being the wealthiest (Gautam Adani is a Cancerian.)
“People born under the Cancer sign had a great year, almost doubling their wealth, followed by Geminis, Taurus and Pisces. Overall Virgos and Scorpios led the way, with the highest number of entries on this year’s list, followed by Aries. Over a period of 5 years, Cancer rich listers created the most wealth, followed by Sagittarius and Aries,” the report said.
The report also considered a city-wise breakdown of wealth. Economic capital Mumbai took the lead with 283 listings, while New Delhi and Bengaluru followed at 185 and 89 respectively.
The report attributed India’s strong top-tier wealthmaking to the nation’s resilience when it came to weathering global financial storms. While the rupee itself has weakened considerably, hitting an all-time low against the US dollar this week, the Indian Nifty index performed much better than its global counterparts NASDAQ and NIKKEI, both of which plummeted by 23% and 29%, compared to the Nifty’s relatively stable 6% YOY fall.
The result is that India currently holds the global #3 spot when it comes to the number of billionaires (177) in its population, behind the USA and China.
Lead Image: indiatoday.in
