The year 2021 can be termed as the year of resilience in India. Resilence from a continued Covid-19 pandemic and the economic lockdown caused by it. The year of rebuilding the nation and its people and a ransacked economy.
At a time when people lost their loved ones, jobs and hope while living in an as brutal lockdown as the pandemic itself, corporates tried hard to sustain through these tough times while retaining a larger segment of their human resources for a larger good.
Hence, in this year’s list of India’s top richest billionaires, Forbes has a resilience story. Story of how India’s corporate leaders found their way through the economic meltdown and brought a change that reinspired people to come out and carry on with their lives.
Year of Blockbuster IPOs
After a dysfunctional pandemic year of 2020, 2021 saw many IPOs being listed on Indian bourses. More than 60 private companies/startups went on to get listed on India’s stock exchanges to expand their capital through Initial Public offerings (IPO) and work as a public limited company.
As per the list, these companies raised $15.6 billion in the year, and the total number of Indian billionaires rose to 166 from 140 last year. The combined wealth grew to about 26 per cent at $750 billion.
Moreover, India became home to 94 unicorns with a total valuation of $319.67 billion, from which 33 were created in 2021 alone.
While speaking about Forbes India’s annual list of India’s top 10 richest billionaires, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have secured the top 2 positions again.
Let’s have a look at the list:
| Name | Company | Headquarter | Net worth (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
 Mukesh Ambani |
Reliance Industries | Mumbai | 90.7 Bn |
 Gautam Adani |
Adani Ports &SEZ | Ahmedabad | 90 Bn |
 Shiv Nadar |
HCL Technologies | Delhi | 28.7 Bn |
 Cyrus Poonawalla |
Serum Institute of India | Pune | 24.3 Bn |
 Radhakishan Damani |
Avenue Supermarts | Mumbai | 20 Bn |
 Lakshmi Mittal |
ArcelorMittal | London | 17.9 Bn |
 Savitri Jindal |
O.P.Jindal Group | Hisar | 17.7 Bn |
 Kumar Birla |
Aditya Birla Group | Mumbai | 16.5 Bn |
 Dilp Shanghvi |
Sun Pharmaceuticals | Mumbai | 15.6 Bn |
 Uday Kotak |
Kotak Mahindra Bank | Mumbai | 14.3Bn |
While Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, wealth rose to 7 per cent, with a net worth of $90.7 billion. Following him is another Gujarati Business tycoon, Gautam Adani, who added $40 billion o his wealth this year.
Shiv Nadar of the HCL group retained the third position on the list after his wealth rose to 22 per cent from the last year. While the country’s largest Covid-19 vaccine producer, Cyrus Poonawalla, is the fourth richest billionaire, with $ 24.3 billion in his pocket.
Sliding one rank down from his previous position is India’s supermarket chain owner, D- Mart’s Radhakishan Damani, who enjoys a net worth of $20 Billion.
While Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharma (Net worth $15.6) is the new entrant in India’s Top 10, Kumar Birla is rose to 8th position in the list with his $16.5 billion net worth. On the other hand, Uday Kotak slid to the 10th position with $14.3 billion.
Notably, among the list, there are 29 new entrées on the list of Indian billionaires. Forbes found Falguni Nayar as the most prominent one. Founder of beauty and fashion website Nykaa, Nayar became the country’s richest self-made woman after a successful IPO in November last year.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
While we talked about how these corporate leaders have added to their wealth while taking the nation out of the covid-induced inflation, here’s how the top billionaires are driving the green energy initiative in India.
In COP26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to cut India’s total projected carbon emission by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, reducing the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy by less than 45% by the end of the decade, net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.
Working on its commitment toward green energy, Reliance has announced setting up four “Giga factories” to produce environment-friendly solar modules, hydrogen, fuel cells, and a battery grid to store electricity with an investment of $8.1 billion. With a target of becoming a net carbon-zero by 2035, it shall facilitate green energy solutions to large renewable plants worldwide.
While Adani aims at making Adani Ports a net-zero carbon emitter by 2025 and is looking forward to powering its data centres with renewable energy by 2030, Adani is committed to spending 75 per cent of its planned CAPEX until 2025 on green technologies.
