India might have only one man left in the list of the world’s 10 richest people, but it is home to several world’s richest billionaires across specific sectors.
India is home to the world’s richest aviation, telecom, healthcare, paint and biscuit manufacturing billionaires, as per Hurun’s Global Rich List 2023. Indigo founders Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia are the world’s richest aviation billionaires, with net worths of $3.6 billion and $3.3 billion respectively. India is also home to the richest telecom billionaire in the world in Mukesh Ambani, who has a net worth of $82 billion, and is the ninth richest man in the world. Serum Institute’s Cryus Poonawala is the richest healthcare billionaire in the world, and Asian Paints’ Ashwin Dani is the richest paint entrepreneur in the world. Interestingly, India is also home to the world’s richest biscuit manufacturers — Nusli Wadia and family of Britannia are the richest biscuit manufacturers in the world.
Apart from pole positions across aviation, telecom, paints and biscuits, several Indian entrepreneurs are second-richest in the world in their respective domains. Kumar Mangalam Birla and family, which run UltraTech cement, is the second-richest cement manufacturer in the world. Byju Raveendran and family, which runs Byju’s, is the second richest education entreprenur in the world. Also, Zoho co-founder Radha Vembu is the second richest self-made woman in the software sector. Sun Pharma’s Dilip Sanghvi and family, with a net worth of $17 billion, are the second richest healthcare billionaires in the world.
And there are several Indians who are the third-richest in the world in their fields as well. Anil Rai Gupta and family, which run Havells, are the third-richest household appliances entrepreneurs in the world with a net worth of $3.6 billion. HCL’s Shiv Nadar is the third-richest software and services billionaire in the world. And in spite of losing nearly $40 billion in the last few months, Gautam Adani is the third-richest energy entrepreneur in the world.
Overall, India has the third highest billionaires globally with 187 billionaires behind China and the US. Over the last five years, Indian billionaires have added $361 billion to their net worths, which is equal to the GDP of Hong Kong. Most of Indian billionaires live in Mumbai, which has 66 billionaires, followed by New Delhi, which is home to 39, and Bangalore, which houses 21 billionaires. The largest number of Indian billionaires are from the healthcare sector, followed by consumer good and chemicals.
And the presence of several Indian entrepreneurs at the top of their respective fields are heartening signs — even if India now has only one representative in the list of the world’s richest entrepreneurs, there are still several businessmen who’s keeping the Indian flag flying high in their respective domains.