Mukesh Ambani Richest Indian Again: The 2014 Forbes List

From the TI archives — originally published September 2014.

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani topped Forbes' list of India's 100 richest for the eighth consecutive year, with a net worth of $23.6 billion — up $2.6 billion in a year.

The 2014 list was a landmark: for the first time, every one of the top 100 was a billionaire. The minimum net worth to make the cut jumped to $1 billion, up from $635 million in 2013. Combined, India's 100 wealthiest were worth $346 billion, up more than a third from $259 billion the year before.

"In 2014, India's outlook has moved very quickly from gloom to boom," said Naazneen Karmali, Forbes Asia's India editor. "The new federal government's mandate for change has sparked euphoria in the stock market causing a seismic shift in Indian wealth this year." That was the Modi-election bounce, and it showed up in fortunes across the board.

The top 10 in 2014:

1. Mukesh Ambani — $23.6B
2. Dilip Shanghvi (Sun Pharma) — $18B
3. Azim Premji (Wipro) — $16.4B
4. Pallonji Mistry — $15.9B
5. Lakshmi Mittal — $15.8B
6. Hinduja brothers — $13.3B
7. Shiv Nadar — $12.5B
8. Godrej family — $11.6B
9. Kumar Birla — $9.2B
10. Sunil Mittal — $7.8B

Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi was the new No. 2, overtaking Lakshmi Mittal, after acquiring rival Ranbaxy Laboratories from Japan's Daiichi Sankyo for $4 billion that April. The biggest dollar gainer was ports magnate Gautam Adani, who jumped 11 spots to No. 11, adding nearly $4.5 billion to reach $7.1 billion — he was buying a port from the Tata Group ($900M) and a southern power plant ($1B). Eleven tycoons from 2013 fell off the list entirely, including Vijay Mallya.

The 2014 list captured a turning point: India's billionaire class was consolidating, and the optimism was real. What followed — the Adani ascent to the top spot by 2022 — would have surprised few who read this list closely.