COVID-19 Impact: Billionaires’ Net Worth Drops, Ambani Still Tops Forbes India List

Mumbai: With the Covid-19 pandemic having brought the world to a standstill and resulted in an economic slowdown worldwide, it’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t felt the pinch. Even billionaires haven’t been spared.

As per the Forbes Billionaires List 2020, the combined net worth of billionaires across the globe has dropped from $8.7 trillion last year to $8 trillion.

Talking of Indian billionaires, the decline in consumer demand has brought down the number of super rich businessmen/industrialists to 102 from 106 in 2019. And their net collective worth has fallen by 23 per cent to $313 billion, according to Forbes.

Reliance Industries’ Chairman Mukesh Ambani remains numero uno among Indians, with a net worth of $36.8 billion. Founder of DMart supermarkets chain Radhakishan Damani ($13.8 billion) is No. 2 and HCL Group co-founder Shiv Nadar is at the third spot.

There is a new Indian entrant in Forbes’ global rich list founder of BYJU’s, Byju Raveendran. His net worth has been estimated at $1.8 billion, making former maths teacher Raveendran India’s youngest billionaire on the coveted list.