31-year-old man dies of cardiac arrest while playing cricket in Mangaluru | coastaldigest.com

21-year-old Kaivalya Vohra and 22-year-old Aadit Palicha of quick commerce startup Zepto, with net worths of Rs 3,600 crore and Rs 4,300 crore respectively, top the Hurun India Rich List 2024, which showcases the country's youngest entrepreneurs.

In the list released on Thursday, Rohan Gupta & Family (25) of SG Finserve is in third place with assets of Rs 1,300 crore, followed by 26-year-old Shasvat Nakrani of BharatPe (Rs 1,300 crore).

Ritesh Agarwal (30) of OYO with a net worth of Rs 1,900 crore and Alakh Pandey (32) of Physics Wallah with a net worth of Rs 4,500 crore were also on the list. Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar (both 33) of Razorpay were the richest individuals on the 'Hurun India Rich List – Youngest' with a net worth of Rs 8,700 crore each.

“These individuals are driving change across numerous industries and reflect the growing influence of India’s youth in the economy,” the report said.

Fifty-two entrepreneurs on this year's list were founders of 29 unicorns and two founders of gazelles, defined as those most likely to “become a unicorn” within two years. Moreover, the total wealth of Indian unicorns and gazelles on the rich list increased by 5 percent to Rs 285 crore.

Meanwhile, the number of Indian billionaires has risen to 334 this year. The list is topped by Gautam Adani and family with a 95 percent increase in wealth to Rs 116 billion, followed by the net worth of Mukesh Ambani and family at Rs 1014 billion, Shiv Nadar and family at Rs 314 billion, Cyrus S. Poonawalla and family at Rs 289 billion and Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries at Rs 249 billion.

“India is emerging as the engine of wealth creation in Asia! While China saw a 25% decline in the number of its billionaires, India saw a 29% increase, reaching a record high of 334 billionaires,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher, Hurun India.

The list found 1,539 individuals in 134 cities with net worth of Rs 1,000 crore. The cumulative wealth of the individuals increased by 46 percent, according to the list. Moreover, 1,334 individuals saw an increase in wealth or remained the same, of which 272 were new additions while 205 saw a decrease in wealth.

According to the report, there was a new billionaire in India every five days last year.

Industry-wise, 142 individuals were from the industrial products sector and 136 individuals from the pharmaceuticals sector. Other top industries were chemicals, software and real estate, with 127, 105 and 91 wealthy individuals on this year's list, respectively.

“The transformation of the Indian economy from a service-oriented to a manufacturing-oriented model is reflected in the Hurun India Rich List 2024. The entrepreneurs in the industrial products sector featured on the list have recorded a remarkable annual growth rate of 47% in their cumulative wealth over the last five years – the highest among all sectors,” said Junaid.

This change is being driven by several key factors, he said. These include the significant increase in central government capital spending on infrastructure development, which rose to $133.3 billion in the 2024/25 fiscal year, an increase of 11.1 percent over the previous year.

“In addition, India attracted significant foreign direct investment (FDI), with total inflows reaching $17.96 billion in fiscal year 2023-24.”

Mumbai with 386 people, followed by New Delhi with 217 people, were home to wealthy people this year. Bengaluru (100), Chennai (82) and Kolkata (69) were other top cities.