India's Top 100 Billionaires: Powering India's growth story amid global headwinds
Only recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised the growth forecast for the Indian economy for 2025 and 2026 to 6.4%, marginally higher than the estimates it put out in April. India, therefore, continues to be the fastest-growing major economy, a tag it has held for some time now. And despite the challenges posed by the global headwinds, India’s growth engine continues to chug along. A key component of this engine is India Inc., which has shown enormous dexterity in navigating choppy waters. Fortune India’s marquee special issue, India’s Top 100 Billionaires, comes against this background. And as the numbers show, despite the challenges, the billionaires driving the country’s top corporate houses have managed to hold their own, powering the India growth story.
This year, the billionaires list, curated by Fortune India in association with wealth advisory firm Waterfield Advisors , is restricted to the Top 100. As V. Keshavdev, who helmed this project, writes in his opening essay, we have chosen depth over sprawl and dug deep into the fortunes and faces that comprise the list. India’s billionaires have stood their ground this year, despite a flat market and geopolitical challenges. This year, the total number of dollar billionaires that comprised the Fortune India universe stood at 182 (with a cut-off of ₹8,576 crore), marginally lower than last year’s 185. Coming to the Top 100, the entry threshold to get into the list has moved up this year to ₹24,283 crore for the 100th billionaire in 2025, up from ₹22,739 crore last year. And even though the cumulative worth of the 100 richest this year is down by $28 billion, the Top 100 remains a trillion-dollar club, with its total worth being a staggering $1.015 trillion. But this is the first decline in their cumulative worth in three years, with the combined worth down ₹52,023 crore in rupee terms to ₹87.02 lakh crore in 2025. The reasons aren’t far to seek—the rupee has declined from 83.96 to 85.76 to the dollar during the period under consideration for the list, while the Nifty has remained virtually flat, rising just over 1%. Importantly, only 46 billionaires saw gains in 2025, down sharply from 88 in 2024.
Delving deeper into this year’s list, one major takeaway is that the Top 3 remain unchanged from last year—Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, and the Mistry family comprise the top three slots this year as well, though they have seen some decline in their wealth. Among the big movers in the Top 10 are Sunil Mittal, whose wealth is up a staggering ₹84,134 crore this year, because of Bharti Airtel ’s stellar showing, and Kumar Mangalam Birla, who breaks into the Top 10 at No. 9 adding ₹44,097 crore to his wealth, bolstered by the Aditya Birla Group’s strong performance. Even within the 100 billionaires, there’s a concentration at the top, with 19—those with over ₹1 lakh crore in net worth—controlling 59% of the total wealth of the 100. And if there was any doubt about the heft of these super-rich, consider this: the wealth of the Top 100 is 26.29% of India’s GDP, with that of the Top 19 alone working out to nearly 15%.
We also get you insights into some of these storied billionaires, from the relentless growth story of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance to the Gautam Adani-led Adani Group ’s dramatic comeback, and the low-profile Radhakishan Damani’s business philosophy. Each of these 100 billionaires on the list is a story of resilience and ambition. Read on.