INDIA'S 10 RICHEST BILLIONAIRE

The COVID-19 pandemic was a double whammy for India’s billionaires, whose fortunes had already taken a hit from a slowing economy and falling consumer demand. Even before India went into a total lockdown at the end of March, its stock market had plunged to a three-year low as of March 18, the date we finalized this year’s list. The total number of Indian billionaires has fallen to 102, versus 106 in 2019. And, more tellingly, their collective wealth has shrunk 23% to $313 billion.

Close to a fifth of that decline can be attributed to the generosity of tech tycoon Azim Premji, who donated a big chunk of his shares in publicly traded Wipro in 2019 to his foundation, bringing his total lifetime giving to his education-focused charity to $21 billion.

Low profile retailing tycoon Radhakishan Damani stood out amid the overall rout. His fortune is up by a quarter, to $13.8 billion, making him India’s second-richest person for the first time. Shares of his Avenue Supermarts, which operates the DMart supermarket chain, an Indian version of Wal-Mart, have been relatively immune to the virus effect. DMart’s value-for-money model, with 196 stores, appeals to India’s middle-class shoppers. A shrewd investor who built a portfolio of growth stocks before he branched out into retailing, Damani is rarely seen at public gatherings.

Oil and gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of $36.8 billion, retained his title as the richest Indian, despite suffering a $13.2 billion drop from a year ago. Ambani’s Reliance RAVN -2% Industries has run up a mountain of debt after its expansion into telecom with its Jio service, which now has 370 million subscribers. Ambani has promised to reduce Reliance’s net debt to zero by 2021, partly by selling assets, such as a deal to sell a 20% stake in the company’s refining and petrochemicals business to Saudi Aramco. Now, the oil price crash is casting a shadow over that $15 billion sale.

Despite the overall decline, a dozen new Indian faces appear this year. The youngest entrant is 39-year-old Byju Raveendran, a former math tutor who founded and runs fast-rising edtech unicorn Byju’s. In its last funding round in January, the firm was valued at $8 billion. Investors include Mark Zuckerberg and Tencent of China. His Byju’s app, aimed at children from grade one to 12, has registered 42 million downloads to date. Forbes estimates his net worth to be $1.8 billion.

Here are India's 10 richest people; net worths are as of March 18, 2020: