India's second richest man Gautam Adani became richer by $49 billion in 2021, higher than the total addition of wealth of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault, according to the 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List released on Wednesday, 16 March.
Reliance Industries CEO Mukesh Ambani continues to top the charts as Asia and India's richest man with a total valuation of $103 billion, a 24 percent rise on a year-on-year basis.
Adani Group's Chairman Gautam Adani, coming in a close second, saw his wealth rising by a staggering 153 percent to $81 billion.
"Gautam Adani, 59, is the biggest gainer in the M3M Hurun Global List 2022 and added USD 49 billion to his wealth last year," the press release stated.
While Ambani's wealth grew by 400 percent over the last 10 years, Adani's grew by 1,830 percent, the Hurun List said.
3,381 Billionaires Ranked From 2,557 Companies, Nykaa New List Entrant
The 2022 M3M Hurun Global Rich List has ranked 3,381 billionaires from 2,557 companies across 69 countries.
Shiv Nadar from HCL came in third among Indians with $28 billion. He was followed by Cyrus Poonawalla of the Serum Institute of India with $26 billion and ArcelorMittal's Lakshmi Mittal with $25 billion.
Falguni Nayar, the founder of Nykaa, was the wealthiest new entrant as per the list, with a valuation of $7.6 billion.
"Over the last 10 years, Indian billionaires added $700 billion to their cumulative wealth – this is equivalent to Switzerland's GDP and twice the GDP of the UAE," Anas Rahman Junaid, chief researcher and MD from the Hurun Global List, said.
He added that India has 18 percent of the world's population and 8 percent of the world's "known" billionaires, an increase from 4.9 percent five years back.
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