Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes India Rich List, adds $15.3 billion to last year's wealth

Agencies
October 5, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 5: Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani on Thursday emerged as India's wealthiest for the 10th straight year as his net worth swelled to $38 billion (nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore) while the wealth of 100 richest rose by 26 percent despite economic hiccups.

Wipro's Azim Premji was the distant second with a net worth of $19 billion, moving up two places from last year, while Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi slipped from his earlier second place to the ninth now ($12.1 billion) on Forbes magazine's annual 'India Rich List 2017'.

Forbes said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "economic experiments" barely affected India's billionaires while none gained more than oil-and-gas tycoon Mukesh Ambani, who cemented his decade-long hold on the top slot by adding a staggering $15.3 billion (67 percent) to his last year's wealth to become one of Asia's top five richest.

Anil Ambani, Mukesh's younger brother, was ranked much lower at 45th place with $3.15 billion. He was ranked 32nd in 2016 ($3.4 billion) and 29th a year before that.

Patanjali Ayurved's Acharya Balkrishna, known as a close associate of yoga guru Ramdev, made a big jump from 48th place last year to 19th now with a net worth of $6.55 billion (about Rs 43,000 crore).

"Despite India's economic hiccups, tycoons on the 2017 Forbes India Rich List saw their wealth soar as their combined fortunes rose 26 percent to $479 billion (over Rs 31 lakh crore)," the magazine said.

"India's turbo-charged economy sputtered in the quarter ended in June as it grew at a three-year low of 5.7 percent, due to the aftershocks of last November's demonetisation and uncertainties over the rollout of a nation-wide Goods and Services Tax. Despite this, the stock market scaled new heights and boosted the fortunes of the nation's 100 richest," it added.

In the case of Ambani, improved refining margins and his telecom unit Reliance Jio's thundering success in notching up 130 million subscribers since its 2016 launch pushed up shares of Reliance Industries.

The Hinduja brothers are at the third position with $18.4 billion while Lakshmi Mittal is now ranked fourth ($16.5 billion) and Pallonji Mistry fifth ($16 billion).

Forbes said the list was compiled using shareholding and financial information secured from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and regulatory agencies.

The ranking lists family fortunes, including those shared among extended families such as the Godrej and Bajaj families. Public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of September 15. Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded.

More than four-fifths of those who kept their spot on the list from last year saw their wealth rise, with 27 listees adding $1 billion or more to their net worth.

The richest newcomer is cookies-and-airline tycoon Nusli Wadia at the 25th place with a net worth of $5.6 billion. Among the five other new entrants to the list are Dinesh Nandwana (88, $ 1.72 billion) of e-governance services firm Vakrangee; Vijay Shekhar Sharma (99, $1.47 billion) of fast-rising mobile wallet Paytm and Rana Kapoor (100, $1.46 billion) of Yes Bank.

Veteran investor Radhakishan Damani, boosted by the listing of his supermarket chain D-Mart in March, returned to the list at 12th place with a net worth of $9.3 billion. Other returnees are Future Group's Kishore Biyani (55th, $2.75 billion) and siblings Murli Dhar and Bimal Gyanchandani (75, $1.96 billion).

However, a dozen have turned poorer than a year ago, with half of them from the pharmaceutical sector, which has been plagued by challenges.

Pharmaceutical magnate Dilip Shanghvi is the biggest dollar loser on the list as his net worth fell by $4.8 billion, ending his three-year run as India's second-richest. The Gupta family (40, $3.45 billion), heirs of patriarch Desh Bandhu Gupta, who died in June, saw their fortune shrink as shares of their generics maker Lupin declined.

Brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia suffered a drop as their Essar Steel faced bankruptcy proceedings under India's stricter new law, Forbes said.

The 100 wealthiest on this year's list are all billionaires. The minimum amount required to make the list was $1.46 billion, up from $1.25 billion last year.

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: Bodies of the four Nirbhaya convicts who were hanged on Friday morning at Tihar Jail have been sent to hospital for a post-mortem, following which it will be handed over to the families, according to an official.

After the hanging at 5:30 am today, the bodies were taken from Tihar Jail to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital for post mortem at around 8:20 am.

Tihar jail Director-General Sandeep Goel said that the bodies will be handed over to the families after the post mortem.

The families, however, will have to give a written undertaking that they will not make a public demonstration of the cremation or burial of the executed person.

The superintendent will also consult the District Magistrate and the Deputy Commissioner of Police for arrangements for the disposal of the body.

The post mortem comes in line with the Supreme Court's order in Shatrughan Chauhan's case in January 2014, which had mandated the same observing that there is a dearth of experienced hangman in the country.

"By making the performance of post mortem obligatory, the cause of the death of the convict can be found out, which will reveal whether the person died as a result of the dislocation of the cervical vertebrate or by strangulation which results on account of too long a drop," the apex court had said in its order.

"Our constitution permits the execution of death sentence only through the procedure established by law and this procedure must be just, fair and reasonable," the order added.

All four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case -- Akshay Singh Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh -- were hanged till death at 5:30 am this morning.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in the national capital. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the adults accused had allegedly committed suicide in the prison during the trial, while the juvenile was released from a correction home after a period of three years.

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News Network
May 30,2020

Coronavirus lockdown in India has been extended till June 30 with more relaxations.

While the lockdown has been extended in containment zones, relaxations outside containment zones include reopening of religious places for public  from June 8. 

Hotels, restaurants and shopping malls also to open from June 8. Decision on opening educational institutions to be taken in July.
 

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Agencies
January 16,2020

Lucknow, Jan 16: The drive initiated by Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath government to identify non-Muslim immigrants in the state seems to have run into rough weather.

In Pilibhit, where the maximum number of about 35,000 illegal immigrants has been identified, it has now been found that information is being sought by the state government on an unverified document. A large number of families from Bangladesh settled here several decades ago.

The survey began last month even before the bill was notified. Moreover, the feedback email on the questionnaire is a Gmail ID -- [email protected] -- which is not a government server.

It is not known how the state government is drawing up the lists without having the verification criteria.

After the report was put up by a news website, Home Department officials feigned complete ignorance about the issue.

A spokesman said: "This was an unofficial and preliminary exercise to assess the number of illegal migrants in the state. The document is meant to collect basic beneficiary information. No list of potential beneficiaries has yet been sent to Delhi."

The document has eight columns asking for name, father's name, place of stay in India, and where did they come from and when. It does not mention any requirement of proof, or documents.

It also asks for a description of the kind of atrocities they faced, presumably in their home country.

The District Magistrate of Pilibhit claimed they are checking documents of the refugees, but denied any knowledge of the unsigned document.

The CAA is meant to benefit Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014. The statement of purposes of the Act adds that it is meant to benefit those fleeing religious persecution from the above countries.

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Abdullah
 - 
Thursday, 16 Jan 2020

Yogi is unfit to be CM as he does not know what he speaks and does.   Its unfortunate that we are such idiot as CM.    Instead of CAA we need PAA (Politician amendment act).    We need age limit of politicians to be fixed to 65 or maximum 70 years and any one coming in politics to be free from any bad doing.   No rapists/murders/looters/decoits should be allowed to contest election.   Presently 90 percent of the politicians have bad record.  Few are rapists, murders, having spent jail term etc.    

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