The cumulative wealth of 284 Indian billionaires is a third of the country's GDP, a report said on Thursday.
Gautam Adani, who helms the conglomerate headquartered in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, has emerged as the biggest wealth gainer globally with a Rs 1 lakh crore jump in his fortune to Rs 8.4 lakh crore, as per the Hurun Global Rich List.
Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani saw a 13 per cent decline in his wealth to Rs 8.6 lakh crore, according to the yearly report which uses a cut-off at January 15. His USD 100 billion fortune has helped him reclaim the title of being the richest Asian.
Adani, who had suffered a significant setback to his fortunes after the Hindenburg report pointing to governance lapses in the conglomerate, saw a 13 per cent increase in his fortunes in the last year.
The country is home to 284 billionaires whose cumulative wealth rose by 10 per cent to Rs 98 lakh crore, or a third of the country's GDP, the report said.
Interestingly, amid the concerns on concentration of wealth in few hands, the list pointed out that India has surpassed China in the average wealth of every billionaire is Rs 34,514 crore as against Rs 29,027 crore in China.
The list, which considers January 15 as the cut-off, said that 175 Indian billionaires have seen a rise in wealth over the past year, while 109 saw their networth decline or remain the same.
Roshni Nadar with a networth of Rs 3.5 lakh crore became the richest Indian woman, and fifth richest woman globally, after her father transferred 47 per cent stake in HCL to her.
From a city perspective, Mumbai added 11 billionaires to take the total up to 90 such super-rich people, but lost the tag of being Asia's billionaire capital to Shanghai this year.
Healthcare industry has the largest number of billionaires in India at 53, followed by by consumer goods with 35 entrants and industrial products with 32 entrants, according to the list.
The average age of Indian billionaires is 68, two years higher than the global billionaires' average age, the list said.
Thirty-four-year-old Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur of Razorpay are the youngest Indian billionaires with a fortune of Rs 8,643 crore each, the list said.
Kharge attack
The Hurun Global Rich List report comes a day after Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted the dire state of workers’ wages. Citing an International Labour Organisation report, the Congress president said that wage growth in India has collapsed from 9.3 per cent in 2006 to a dismal 0.1 per cent in 2023.
Kharge also launched an attack on the Modi government, accusing it of driving the middle class and dragging economic inequality back to pre-colonial levels.
“In the last 78 years, no government has weakened the common people economically as much as the Modi government has oppressed them,” Kharge said in a post on X.
Further talking about the low quality of wages in India, he said, “Even if anyone has an advanced degree or holds a skilled job, one is still paid the seventh lowest wages in the world.”
Kharge accused the Modi government of hollowing out the middle class through rising taxes, inflation, and economic mismanagement. “Due to the burden of taxes, inflation and economic mismanagement... The middle class, the poor and the neglected are shrinking, and the Modi government is going around shouting ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas’,” he said.
ILO figures show that the poorest one-third has dropped from 10.8 per cent in 1820 to 6.4 per cent in 2023. The middle class has held on, with its share slipping from 15 per cent to 14.9 percent. But the wealthiest one-third has grown even richer, now holding 77.8 per cent of the national income, up from 73.2 per cent in 1820.
The World Inequality Report 2022 had highlighted the staggering wealth disparity in the country.
“Average household wealth in India is equal to €PPP35,800 (Rs 9 lakh 83 thousand). The bottom 50 per cent owns almost nothing, with an average wealth of Rs 115,000 (Rs 1 lakh 15 thousand),” it stated.
In comparison, China’s average household wealth was €PPP86, 100.
