Forbes India's 2021 list: Mukesh Ambani & Gautam Adani retain top spots as India's richest

Maintaining his 14-year stint as India's richest person, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani retained his title as per Forbes magazine's 100 richest Indians list, released on Thursday. Adding $4 billion to his net worth in 2021, Ambani's net worth has now ballooned to $92.7 billion. He was closely followed by infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani, who has tripled his fortune to $74.8 billion, as per Forbes India.

As per Forbes India, the top 100 richest saw a rise of a 50% gain in the past 12 months - adding $257 billion - tallying a collective worth of $775 billion. Moreover, 80% of the listees saw their fortunes rise - with 61 adding $1 billion or more - as per Forbes. Jindal Steel matriarch Savitri Jindal is the lone woman in the top 10 richest - regaining her position as seventh richest ($18 billion). Other women in the top 100 include - Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon) and Leena Tewari (USV)

Here are the top 10 richest:

1. Mukesh Ambani ($92.7 billion) - Reliance Group
2. Gautam Adani ($74.8 billion) - Adani Group
3. Shiv Nadar ($31 billion) - HCL Technologies
4. Radhakishan Damani ($29.4 billion) - D-Mart
5. Cyrus Poonawalla ($19 billion) - Serum Institute of India
6. Lakshmi Mittal ($18.8 billion) - Arcelor Mittal
7. Savitri Jindal ($18 billion) - Jindal group
8. Uday Kotak ($16.5 billion) - Kotak group
9. Pallonji Mistry ($16.4 billion) - Shapoorji Pallonji Group
10. Kumar Mangalam Birla ($15.8 billion) - Aditya Birla Group‎

While India's pandemic resulted in severe economic stress to the nation, it also enabled the entry of several new faces into the top 100 richest list. Of the six new entrants - three are chemical honchos like -  Yogesh Kothari of Alkyl Amines Chemicals; Deepak Mehta of Deepak Nitrite; and Ashok Boob of Clean Science and Technology. Moreover, with rising in COVID testing diagnostics chain Dr Lal PathLabs doubled its earnings - making way for its executive chairman Arvind Lal's debut in the elite. The other two new faces are returnees - Lodha group founder Mangal Prabhat Lodha and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise chairman Prathap Reddy. With Forbes setting a cut off of  $1.94 billion - eleven from last year have been dropped off.