India’s jet set: how billionaires earned, lost and donated in 2022

• While a few billionaires got richer, others lost value and many newcomers joined the coveted club as well.
• Gujarat-based billionaire Gautam Adani has become the richest man in the country, overtaking Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.
• As many as 149 individuals entered the IIFL Hurun India Rich List of 1,103 – all of whom have assets of ₹1,000 crore or more
• Zepto founder, 19-year-old Kaivalya Vohra, was named as the youngest billionaire.

The year 2022 may be remembered for the deadly war and ongoing battle against Covid, but this year saw a marked shift in the billionaire rankings, with many new and young entrants even as the global economy faltered under the stress of war, supply chain disruption and higher financing costs. Overall, the cumulative wealth of Indian billionaires has increased by 9.4%, while average wealth has fallen by 1%.

According to various rich lists compiled by Hurun, IIFL and more – here is a compilation of the life and times of the Indian jet set this year.

‘The catching up of ₹5 lakh crore’

This year, Gujarat-based billionaire Gautam Adani became India’s richest man, overtaking chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani. In 2021, Adani trailed Ambani with ₹ 2 lakh crore. He is now ahead of Ambani by ₹ 3 lakh crore. The report calls it the ‘catching up of ₹5 lakh crore’.

He did it by adding ₹1,612 crore per day to his wealth which amounts to ₹10.94 lakh crore, the report said. “In 2012, Adani’s wealth was barely one-sixth of Ambani’s wealth and no one could have imagined that he would overtake Ambani to become India’s richest man within a decade,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and principal researcher at Hurun India.

“From the perspective of creating Indian wealth, 2022 will be remembered for the meteoric rise of Adani. While rapidly expanding his commodities trading business into a coal-to-port-to-energy conglomerate, he is the only Indian who has built not one but seven companies with a market cap of one lakh crore,” Junaid added.

The year was also good for many others as 149 individuals entered the IIFL Hurun India Rich List of 1,103 – all of whom have assets of ₹1,000 crore or more. They have a cumulative net worth of ₹ 100 lakh crore.

The number of women on the list this year is 55, compared to 13 ten years ago.

New billionaires on the way
As many as 149 people made their debut in IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022.

Three places in the top 10 new additions were taken by the Vakil family with interests in Asian Paints. Nehal Abhay Vakil, who has a net worth of ₹11,700 crore, tops the list while Vivek Abhay Vakil and Bhairavi Abhay Vakil ranked fourth and seventh respectively.

Zepto founder, 19-year-old Kaivalya Vohra, was named as the youngest in the list. He has a net worth of ₹1,000 crore and ranks 1036th in the list with 1,103 people.

Alakh Pandey, popularly known as ‘Physics Wallah’, and co-founder Prateek Boob also made the list. Both are ranked 399th with a net worth of ₹4,000 crore when their startup Physics Wallah became a unicorn.

Chemicals and petrochemicals contributed the largest number of new entrants with 20 new entrants, followed by financial services (17) and software & services (12).

Founders of Zerodha, Flipkart, OYO in top 10 under 40 wealthy entrepreneurs
India’s richest self-made entrepreneurs named in the wealthy list saw their wealth increase by 12% over the past year. As many as 53 of them made it to this list of entrepreneurs – and they cumulatively added a net worth of ₹1,85,000 crore – a growth of 12% compared to last year.

Nikhil Kamath, the founder of Zerodha topped the list with ₹17,500 crore. His wealth has increased by 9% in the past year.

This was followed by Ola Electric’s Bhavish Aggarwal and Divyank Turakhia with ₹11,700 crore and ₹11,200 crore respectively. Aggarwal saw his wealth rise by 56%, while Turakhia’s fell by 10%.

Head of Wipro, Mindtree, HCL Tech among the top philanthropists this year

According to the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2022, the top philanthropists have cumulatively donated ₹3,378 crore in FY22, which is only 28% of what they donated in the past fiscal year, which is ₹12,785 crore in FY21.

Shiv Nadar, the founder and chairman of HCL Technologies, is India’s most generous, donating ₹3 crore a day, even as his post-pandemic contributions to philanthropy continue to moderate.

The good news is that 19 new additions have been added to the list, with the total donations from these newcomers reaching ₹832 crore. There are also six women on the list this year.

The youngest philanthropist on the list is 36-year-old Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha. It is clear that the young entrepreneurs start their philanthropic journey early, unlike many others from the Indian business community.

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