India’s 10 richest people control a fortune worth 11% of the country’s GDP

As India embarks on sustaining growth, wealth generation appears to be concentrated among a few individuals who account for a significant share of the country’s economic output. Indeed, the imbalance in wealth has emerged as an area of concern due to the threat of undermining India’s progress.

According to data acquired and calculated by Finbold on January 9, as of December 2022, the top ten richest Indian individuals controlled a fortune of $387 billion (₹31.64 trillion). The sum is equivalent to 11.16% of the country’s estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3.47 trillion, as projected by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October 2022.

A breakdown of the wealthy individuals indicates that Gautam Adani of Adani Enterprises is India’s wealthiest person with a net worth of $132.79 billion, followed by Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani at $96.50 billion, while Cyrus Poonawalla ranks third at $24.88 billion. Shiv Nadar and Radhakishan Damani occupy the fourth and fifth spots at $22.58 billion and $21.25 billion, respectively.

Other individuals making up India’s rich list include Vinod Shantilal Adani ($20.52 billion), Hinduja brothers ($20.03 billion), Lakshmi Niwas Mittal ($18.46 billion), Dilip Shanghvi ($16.15 billion), and Uday Kotak ($14.45 billion).

Effects of India’s wealth imbalance

The report explored some of the implications of India’s broader wealth gap as the country focuses on growing the economy. According to the research report:

“The high level of wealth inequality in India has raised concerns in the past as it threatens to undermine the country’s social and economic progress. Notably, the unbalanced nature can have adverse effects such as reduced social mobility and political instability. It can also be detrimental to economic growth, discouraging investment and entrepreneurship among the poor, who need more access to the resources necessary to start or grow a business.”

Overall, India’s situation highlights the global concern over the growing wealth gap. In this line, there have been calls to implement progressive policies in sectors such as taxation that can inspire wealth redistribution.