NEW DELHI: In the recent Forbes List of 10 richest billionaires in 2021, the Reliance Industries Ltd's Chairman Mukesh Ambani bags the first spot while Gautam Adani, the Chairman of Adani Group comes second. Gautam Adani, with a whooping $50.5 billion worth of assets came second to Mukesh Ambani who, with a colossal capital of $84.5 billion took first place in the Forbes list of India's richest billionaires.
According to a Forbes report, the number of billionaires grew from 102 to 140 doubling their collective wealth to $596 billion in the last year. Even in the midst of the global covid-19 pandemic, the world saw an out of the ordinary surge of the billionaire's wealth worldwide and a steep rise in the stock market.
After the shares of Adani Green and Adani Enterprises catapulted, Gautam Adani's assets saw an alarming rise of $42 billion. Gautam Adani has diversified and expanded his business from infrastructure and has shown keen interest in the management and operations of various airports of India. In September 2020, Adani Group took possession of 74% share in Mumbai International Airport, and sold of 20% share of Adani Green to a French energy company for $2.5 billion.
Last year in August, Gautam Adani-led Adani Enterprises had signed a concession agreement of 50 years with Airports Authority of India (AAI) for overseeing the operations, management, and development of the airports of Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Jaipur. The Cabinet of India approved the proposal for leasing out the airports after the Adani Group won them in the auctions.
Mukesh Ambani accumulated $35 billion worth of investment for his Jio company and nullified his companies net debt. He further diversified his business to retail and technology sectors with the help of aquisition and fundraisers last year.
Mukesh Ambani had recently donated 20 kg of Gold to Guwahati's Kamakhya Temple which has been used to renovate the domes of the temple but this sparked opposition from a few who saw this as an attempt to alter the Kamakhya Temple which is a cultural heritage site of historic significance.
"He also sold a third of telecom unit Jio to marquee investors such as Facebook and Google and offloaded 10 percent of Reliance Retail to private equity firms such as KKR and General Atlantic, plus concluded a $7.3 billion rights issue of Reliance shares," Forbes said.
Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL comes third in the Forbes list Richest man in India, followed by Damani($16.5 billion) and Uday Kotak, Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank ($15.9 billion) in the fourth and fifth place.
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