Who are the top 10 richest people in India? As India’s economy experiences exponential growth, that might frequently be a question you wonder about. A record number of Indians, 200 in total, have made it to Forbes’ 2024 World’s Billionaires list.
To probably no one’s surprise, Mukesh Ambani tops the list, and it goes on to include eminent personalities like Gautam Adani and Shiv Nadar.
In this post, we bring you a list of the top 10 richest people in India courtesy of Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires rankings, which keep an eye out for billionaires globally.
The information provided corresponds to data collected on July 8, 2024.
Mr Mukesh Ambani, the Managing Director and Chairman of Reliance Industries, is India’s wealthiest individual. As reported by Forbes, Reliance Industries has a revenue of over Rs 9.03 lakh crore ($109.4 billion). It is involved in diverse sectors such as petrochemicals, oil and gas, retail, telecom, and more. Ambani’s three children, Akash, Anant, and Isha, are actively involved in managing different divisions of the conglomerate.
Gautam Adani
Age: 62 Years
Source of Wealth: Adani Group
Gautam Shantilal Adani, an Indian billionaire industrialist, is renowned as the founder and chairman of the Adani Group. This multinational conglomerate is involved in port operations and development within India. The Adani Foundation, established by Gautam Adani in 1996, has his wife, Priti Adani, serving as its chairperson. The group’s business interests encompass various sectors,encompassing ports, airports, electricity transmission and generation, and renewable energy. Adani is acknowledged as the biggest airport operator in India and is also in charge of the largest port in the nation, Mundra Port in Gujarat.
A US company called Hindenburg Research charged Adani and his businesses with financial fraud and stock market manipulation in January 2023. After the report was released, the stocks of Adani Group companies have been in free fall, resulting in a wipeout of over $120 billion in their market value. The market value recovered when the Supreme Court ruled in the group’s favour a year later.
Savitri Jindal & family
Age: 74 Years
Source of Wealth: OP Jindal Group
Savitri Jindal is an Indian politician and entrepreneur who holds the esteemed position of emeritus chair at the OP Jindal Group. The various divisions of the business are run by her four sons: Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Naveen Jindal. Further, JSW Sports, the sports division of the JSW Group, operates as part of the conglomerate that spans India, the US, South America, Europe, and Africa. Its objective is to actively contribute to developing a vibrant sports ecosystem in India. Savitri Jindal is the richest woman in India.
Shiv Nadar
Age: 78 Years
Source of Wealth: HCL Enterprise
Shiv Nadar is the proprietor of the HCL group and a pioneer of the IT industry in India. HCL boasts renowned clientele such as Cisco, Microsoft, and Boeing. In recognition of his remarkable contributions to the IT industry, the Indian government bestowed Mr Nadar with the Padma Bhushan, India’s esteemed third-highest civilian distinction, in 2008. Mr Nadar is a highly respected philanthropist. He has donated Rs 2,042 crore in late 2023 to various causes.
Dilip Shanghvi
Age: 68 Years
Source of Wealth: Sun Pharmaceuticals
Dilip Shanghvi is a prominent Indian business tycoon and the visionary behind Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, the first Indian pharma company with a $5 billion valuation. He grew Sun through a series of acquisitions, the biggest of which was the 2014 purchase of scandal-tainted rival Ranbaxy Laboratories for $4 billion.
Kumar Birla
Age: 57 Years
Source of Wealth: Aditya Birla Group
Recognised as a prominent figure in the field of commodities, Kumar Birla assumes leadership over the Aditya Birla Group. Apart from its involvement in the aluminium and cement sectors, the group also provides financial services. Birla also held the role of the non-executive chairman of the Vodafone Idea telecommunications company; however, he stepped down in 2021 as the entity got riddled with more debts. As of 2024, the company has appointed Birla as a non-executive director. He was recently made additional director of boards of Vodafone Idea when Vodafone Idea made ₹18,000 crore FPO, the largest in India’s history, which was seen as a success and the beginning of “Vodafone Idea 2.0,” focused on network upgrades and 5G rollout. Recently, Birla’s children, Ananya and Aryaman, have joined his board of flagship companies.
Cyrus Poonawalla
Age: 83 Years
Source of Wealth: Serum Institute of India
Cyrus Poonawalla, a prominent figure in vaccine development within India, stands as the primary beneficiary of the expanding sales and earnings through his ownership of the privately held Serum Institute of India. Assisting him in its management is his son Adar. The institute is headquartered in Pune. Notably, the Serum Institute has the prestigious title of being the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. The recent increase in Cyrus Poonawalla’s wealth can largely be attributed to the widespread utilisation of the Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by the SII. Recently, Cyrus Poonawalla came on the political radar for being a top donor to NCP in the 2019 elections.
Radhakishan Shivkishan Damani,
Age: 69 Years
Source of Wealth: Avenue Supermarts Limited
Radhakishan Shivkishan Damani, an Indian entrepreneur and prominent investor, is renowned as the founder of Avenue Supermarts Limited, which runs almost 336 DMart stores in India. He is also known as India’s retail king, having started his journey from Mumbai in 2002. Additionally, he exercises control over his investment ventures via his company, Bright Star Investments Limited. He has stakes in VST and India Cement, and his property portfolio also includes Radisson Blu Resort in Alibaug.
Kushal Pal Singh
Age: 92
Source of Wealth: DLF Limited
Property baron Kushal Pal Singh is chairman emeritus of DLF, India’s biggest listed real estate firm by market cap. Singh is an army veteran. He joined DLF, a company started by his father-in-law, in 1961. He then made DLF City in Gurgaon and served as chairman for more than five decades. He is now chairman emeritus. Today, the Delhi headquartered DLF is run by his son Rajiv Singh Pal as the chairman of the realty. DLF is known to launch a luxury residential project in 2022 in Delhi with GIC.
Ravi Jaipuria
Age: 69 Years
Net Worth: $17.4 B
Source of Wealth: RJ Corp
Ravi Jaipuria is known as the king of soft drinks and fast food brands in India. He is the owner and chairman of RJ Corp, which has an interest in everything from beverages and fast food to healthcare and education. Under the group, he manages Varun Beverages—named after his son—which is the largest bottling partner for PepsiCo’s soft drink brands outside the US. There is also Devyani International—named after his daughter—which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Costa Coffee, and TWG Tea outlets in India. Jaipuria studied in the US and returned in 1985 to join the family business as a bottler for Coca-Cola. In 1987, he made the switch to PepsiCo when the family split, and he got one bottling plant as his share. Jaipuria’s other interests include stakes in hospital chain Global Health (Medanta), which went public in 2022 and listed budget hotel chain Lemon Tree Hotels.
Frequently asked questions
1. Who are the top 10 richest women in India?
The top 10 richest women in India as of July 2024 are:
#1 Savitri Jindal
#2 Rekha Jhunjhunwala
#3 Vinod Rai Gupta
#4 Anu Aga
#5 Renuka Jagtiani
#6 Smita Crishna-Godrej
#7 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
#8 Radha Vembu
#9 Falguni Nayar
#10 Leena Tewari
2. Who are the top 10 richest people in the world?
The top 10 richest people in the world (as of July 2024) are:
#1 Elon Musk
#2 Jeff Bezos
#3 Bernard Arnault & family
#4 Mark Zuckerberg
#5 Larry Ellison
#6 Larry Page
#7 Sergey Brin
#8 Warren Buffett
#9 Bill Gates
#10 Steve Ballmer
3. Who is India’s first billionaire?
Nizam Ali of Hyderabad, recognized as the first Indian billionaire, was celebrated by Time magazine in 1937 as “The Richest Man in the World.” Reports suggest substantial wealth remains in an English bank, totalling over Rs 3 billion.
