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

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

The year of 2022 might be remembered for the deadly war and ongoing fight against Covid, but this year saw a marked change in the rankings of billionaires, with many new and young entrants, even as the global economy reeled under the stress of war, supply chain disruption and heightened borrowing costs. Overall, the cumulative wealth of Indian billionaires has increased by 9.4% while average wealth decreased by 1%.

As per various rich lists curated by Hurun, IIFL and more – here is a curation of the life and times of India’s jet set this year.

‘The ₹5 lakh crore catch up’

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

He did it by adding ₹1,612 crore per day to his wealth which stands at ₹10.94 lakh crore, the report said. “In 2012, Adani’s wealth was hardly one-sixth of Ambani’s wealth and no one could imagine that he would overtake Ambani to become the richest man in India in ten years,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher at Hurun India.

“From an Indian wealth creation perspective, 2022 will be remembered for Adani’s meteoric rise. Briskly expanding his commodity trading company into a coal–to–port-to-energy conglomerate, he is the only Indian to have built not one, but seven companies with a market cap of one lakh crore,” added Junaid.

The year has been good for many others too, as 149 individuals entered the IIFL Hurun India Rich List of 1,103 – all of whom have a wealth of ₹1,000 crore or more. They cumulatively have a wealth of ₹100 lakh crore.

The number of women in the list is 55 this year, up from 13 ten years ago.

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

Three spots in the top 10 list of new additions were taken up by the Vakil family with holdings in Asian Paints. Nehal Abhay Vakil, with a net worth of ₹11,700 crore, tops the list, whereas, Vivek Abhay Vakil and Bhairavi Abhay Vakil were 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 is ranked at 1036th in the list which had 1,103 people.

Alakh Pandey, popularly known as ‘Physics Wallah’, and its co-founder Prateek Boob also entered the list. Both are ranked at 399th position with a wealth of ₹4,000 crore as their startup Physics Wallah turned unicorn.

The chemicals and petrochemicals sector contributed the greatest number of new entrants with 20 new additions, followed by financial services (17) and software & services (12).

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

Zerodha’s founder Nikhil Kamath topped the chart with ₹17,500 crore. His wealth surged by 9% in the last one 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 wealth fell by 10%.

Head of Wipro, Mindtree, HCL Tech among 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 last fiscal year i.e ₹12,785 crore in FY21.

Shiv Nadar, the founder and chairman of HCL Technologies, is India’s most generous, with donations of ₹3 crore per day, even as his contributions towards philanthropy continue to moderate after the pandemic.

The good news is that the list saw 19 new additions, with total donations by these new entrants adding up to ₹832 crore. Also, six women have featured on the list this year.

The youngest philanthropist on the list is 36-year-old Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha. Clearly, the young entrepreneurs are beginning their philanthropic journey early on, unlike many others from corporate India.


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