Yoga guru Ramdev’s close associate Balkrishna has entered India’s richest 100 club with USD 2.5 billion networth owing to his 97 percent holding in Patanjali Ayurved, while new-age retailer Flipkart’s co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal made a surprise exit from the list.
Acharya Balkrishna has made his debut on the Forbes list of India’s 100 Richest People at 48th position.
Forbes, while releasing its annual India’s richest list, said,
The magazine said Patanjali’s profits are donated to various trusts and charities.
Balkrishna is among the six newcomers on the list, topped for the ninth consecutive year by Mukesh Ambani, while 13 persons have failed to make the cut this year.
The two friends had teamed up in 2007 to found Flipkart as an online seller of books by pooling in $ 650 of their combined savings and started operating out of their apartment. Now, Flipkart is among the country’s biggest internet retailer and has attracted funds from several global investors, though things have not been very rosy of late.
This year, the minimum amount required to make to the Forbes list was USD 1.25 billion, up from USD 1.1 billion in 2015. The 13 who dropped off also includes Welspun Group’s chairman Balkrishan Goenka. Meanwhile, there are only six newcomers this year.
Two-wheeler tycoon Pawan Munjal takes the spot of his father, Brijmohan Lall Munjal, who died last November. Forbes said the list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and regulators.
The ranking lists family fortunes, including those shared among extended families such as Godrej and Bajaj. Public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of 9 September. Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded.
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