Forbes India — November 17, 2017

84 | forbes india december 29, 2017

By HaricHandan arakali

iT’s Time to Make Hay

Despite a wobbly outsourcing inDustry, a stronger american

market has helpeD tech firms grow, anD has pusheD two

software billionaires up the ranks. but infosys co-founDers

miss out as stocks tumbleD over the murthy-sikka spat

[i n d u s t r y]

i n f o r m at i o n t e c h n o l o g y

shiv nadar of hcl

technologies has seen

his wealth increase to

$13.4 billion

T

he wealth of IT

billionaires, much of

which is derived from

the value of their stocks

in the companies they

founded, is under

threat in the long run as outsourcing,

the job that built their wealth, is

fast becoming obsolete. But the year

under consideration for the 2017

Forbes India Rich List has revealed a

contrarian trend in which the fortunes

and the ranks of IT czars have gone up.

HCL Technologies’ Shiv Nadar

has moved up a spot to No 7 this year,

while his wealth has increased almost

by a fifth to $13.4 billion, helped by a

nearly 10 percent increase in HCL’s

stock price in the 12 months through

the September quarter. His Bengaluru

rival Azim Premji has climbed two

spots to No 2, behind Mukesh Ambani

of Reliance Industries (Reliance

Industries owns Network 18, the

publishers of Forbes India). Premji,

who owns close to three-quarters of

Wipro, India’s third-biggest software

services company, saw his wealth rise

by 26 percent to $19 billion in roughly

the 12 months since last year’s ranking.

ritesh sharma / the inDia t

oD

ay group / getty images

Richest

10 0 IndIans

The