A Few Rise in a Flat Year

Buett, broadband and biotech lift some of the lofty.

TOMOHIRO OHSUMI/GETTY IMAGES

V

ijay Shekhar Sharma,

India’s youngest billionaire

and founder of mobile pay-

ments giant Paytm, seems

unstoppable. In August,

billionaire investor Wa r r e n Bufett’s Berk-

shire Hathaway invested $300 million in

Sharma’s irm, joining a galaxy of marquee

investors such as Alibaba and SotBank.

“It’s an endorsement of the India story. I

feel more responsibility than ever before,”

says Sharma of Bufett’s bet, which valued

Paytm north of $ 10 billion and boosted the

40 - year-old’s net worth.

A rout in the rupee—down 1 3% since

we last measured fortunes a year ago—

practically wiped out the Indian stock

market’s 1 4% rise in the same period. Even

so, 11 of the nation’s 100 richest saw their

fortunes jump by $ 1 billion or more. Oil

and gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani added

$9.3 billion amid the continuing success of

his Reliance Jio broadband telco service. He

remains at No. 1 for the 11 th year in a row.

he biggest gainer percentage wise is

biotech queen Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw,

one of only 4 women on the list, who saw

her wealth soar by two thirds. Shares of her Biocon jumped

when it received approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Admin-

istration last December for a cancer drug codeveloped with

Mylan and have nearly doubled in the past 12 months.

Overall, the top 100 have eked out only a 2.7% gain in their

combined wealth to $492 billion since our 2017 list. Close to

half are poorer, six of them by $ 1 billion or more. Among them

is Acharya Balakrishna, cofounder of herbal consumer goods

maker Patanjali Ayurved, whose fortune fell by more than a

fourth as sales slowed. Higher fuel prices took a toll on the

wealth of Kapil & Rahul Bhatia, the father-son pair behind In-

diGo, the country’s biggest airline, which at least gained market

share as rivals reeled under inancial woes.

Among the ive new faces are Krishna Kumar Bangur,

who controls Graphite India, which is beneiting from acute

demand from the steel sector for its graphite electrodes (see

story, p. 66 ); and south Indian infrastructure magnate P.P.

Reddy of Megha Engineering & Infrastructure.

Eight dropped of the list, including Rana Kapoor, whose

Ye s Bank shares dropped 29% in one day ater the Reserve

Bank of India said he must step down as CEO in January. he

regulator’s move was reportedly a response to inadequate dis-

closure of bad loans, which Ye s Bank has denied. he fortune

of paints tycoon Ashwin Choksi, who died in September, is

now listed under his family.

Additional reporting by Megha Bahree, Sean Kilachand and

Anuradha Raghunathan.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is India’s youngest billionaire and the founder of Paytm.

India’s 100 Richest

BY NAAZNEEN KARMALI

70 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2018