Mukesh Ambani is getting richer, but half of India's 100 wealthiest billionaires are losing money
After increasing his fortune to US$52.7 billion, Mukesh Ambani has topped Forbes India’s 100 Richest People list for 12 consecutive years – while infrastructure and coal mining billionaire Gautam Adani leapt eight spots to second place
India's economic growth has slowed – and the country’s richest people haven’t been spared the effects.
Forbes released its 2019 ranking of India's 100 Richest People, and it showed that more than half of India’s richest people lost money in the past 12 months.
“Under the Narendra Modi-led government, which returned to power for a second term with a thumping majority in May, economic growth slowed to five per cent – a six-year low,” wrote the magazine’s Naazneen Karmali.
According to Karmali, the automobile and consumer goods industries were hit particularly hard, with lay-offs and production cuts. Fourteen of India’s richest lost at least US$1 billion each, and nine of last year’s richest didn’t make this year’s list.
The 62-year-old is now worth an estimated US$52.7 billion, making him the 15th richest person in the world. Ambani has now been India’s richest man for 12 years in a row.
The next richest entry, Gautam Adani, is worth an estimated US$15.7 billion. That may be a whopping US$37 billion less than Ambani, but Adani rose eight spots in the past year to become the second-richest person in India. The infrastructure and coal mining billionaire got approval in 2019 to start work on a coal mine in Australia after waiting nine years, according to Forbes. Adani also controls India’s largest port, Mundra Port in the state of Gujarat.