India is riding high and is considered a hot spot by global investors. That buoyancy has made the elite club of India's 100 Richest even more exclusive this year, with the minimum net worth to make the cutoff rising to a record $2.3 billion
In a dramatic shift in the pecking order at the top, Mukesh Ambani reclaims the No. 1 position on the 2023 Forbes list of India’s 100 Richest. The collective wealth of India’s 100 Richest was flat at $799 billion this year. The complete list is available here. The list can also be found in the October issue of Forbes Asia and the December issue of Forbes India.
India is on a high after hosting the G20 Summit in New Delhi this September and becoming the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon. Reflecting this sentiment, India’s stock market rose 14% since fortunes were last measured. However that jump, tempered by a weaker rupee, was not reflected in the collective net worth of India’s 100 Richest, which flatlined at $799 billion.
Mukesh Ambani, who transformed his Reliance Industries into a diversified conglomerate, reclaims the No. 1 spot with a net worth of $92 billion. Shortly after spinning off and listing Jio Financial Services, which has an asset management joint venture with BlackRock, Ambani cemented his succession plan by appointing his three children to Reliance’s board as non-executive directors in August.
The fortune of infrastructure magnate Gautam Adani, who rose meteorically to overtake Ambani as India’s richest person for the first time last year, reversed dramatically after a damaging report by U.S. short seller Hindenburg Research in January sent his group’s shares tumbling. Despite recovering somewhat since, his net worth, which includes that of his family, fell by a whopping $82 billion to $68 billion – down the most in both dollar and percentage terms – and he slips back into second place.
Software tycoon Shiv Nadar climbs two spots to return to No. 3 with a fortune of $29.3 billion, as shares of HCL Technologies jumped 42% in the past year amid a tech rebound.