Hurun Global Rich List: The rise and rise of India's wealthiest

India rose to the third spot on the Hurun Global Rich List with with 177 billionaires. The country now has 209 billionaires, of which 177 live in India.

RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani became the eighth richest in the world and the second in Asia as his total wealth surged by 24% over the past one year to $83 billion.

Apart from Ambani, the other Indians who found a place on the rich list are Gautam Adani and family with who saw his wealth doubling to $32 billion, on the back of Adani Green Energy growing to a $20 billion valuation. Shiv Nadar & family ($27 billion) came in at third, followed by NR Narayana Murthy ($3.1 billion). Pankaj Munjal and family also made it to the list for the first time with $1.2 billion.

“India last year added billionaires at a similar rate to the US, 50 compared with 69,” the report said.

Hurun India’s Managing Director and Chief Researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said Indian wealth creation is dominated by cyclical or traditional industries compared to tech-driven wealth creation in the US and China.

“When the tech-driven wealth creation reaches full potential, India could potentially beat USA in terms of the number of billionaires,” he added.

Mumbai stood at ninth position with 60 billionaires, followed by New Delhi with 40 billionaires and Bengaluru with 22 billionaires.

Biocon’s founder and managing director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the richest Indian female entrepreneur, according to the report. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw’s wealth rose by 41% to $4.8 billion followed by Smita V Crishna of Godrej at $4.7 billion and Lupin’s Manju Gupta at $3.3 billion.

Globally, Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk became the world’s richest person, adding $151 billion over the last year to take him to $197 bn. The bulk of his wealth is from his 21% share of Tesla, which is worth just under $800bn.

He is followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos at $189 billion and Frenchman Bernard Arnault of fashion house LVMH at $114 billion.