Krishna Chivukula (L), Ashok Soota (C) and Rishi Khosla (R) are among the new entrants on Hurun's India Rich List IIT-M/Wikimedia/BI India
- Hurun’s Rich List for India added 162 new faces to its roster this year.
- According to the Managing Director and chief researcher at Hurun India, Anas Rahman Junaid, more than 70% of these are self-made.
- The total number of dollar billionaires rose by 38 this year as compared to 2019.
The Hurun India Rich List has added 162 new faces this year — the highest ever so far. The new entrants spanned across 31 industries and 50 cities.
“More than 70% of the new entrants are self-made — this depicts the rising first-generation entrepreneurship in India,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, the managing director and chief researcher at Hurun India.
The threshold to enter the 2020 rich list was ₹1,000 crore. The total number of dollar billionaires rose by 38 this year to 179 individuals. And the pharmaceutical industry was the highest contributor with 27 new entrants, boosted by the coronavirus pandemic.
These are the top 10 new entrants to the Hurun India Rich List:
1. Subash Runwal and family
Wikimedia
Net worth: ₹7,900 crore
Company: Runwal Developers
Subash Runwal is an Indian real estate magnate, founder, and chairman of the Runwal Group. The property tycoon is known for building middle-class homes in Mumbai’s central suburbs.
He worked as an accountant for nearly a decade before foraying into the real estate market in 1978. Now, his business also owns several malls with Singapore’s GIC as one of the investors, according to Runwal.
2. Krishna Chivukula and family
IIT-M
Net worth: ₹6,800 crore
Company: Indo-MIM
Krishna Chivukula setup Indo-MIM in 1998, and now it has grown to become one of the leading suppliers of parts produced using metal injection molding (MIM) in the world.
Chivukula has master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
“I come from a middle-class professional family, brought up in small villages in Andhra Pradesh,” he wrote on his alumni page.
3. Ajit Prabhu
Quest Global
Net worth: ₹6,700 crore
Company: Quest Global
Ajit Prabhu is the chairman and CEO of Quest Global, an engineering company that he co-founded with Aravind Melligeri in 1997.
Before founding the company, Prabhu’s career initially began at General Electric in the Corporate Research and Development Center as a contract engineer.
He holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the Karnataka University, a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Old Dominion University, and another Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic.
4. Aravind Melligeri
Quest Global
Net worth: ₹6,700 crore
Company: Quest Global
Aravind Melligeri and Quest Global co-founder Ajit Prabhu have the same net worth. Melligeri is also the chairman and CEO of Aequs Aerospace. Aequs specialises in manufacturing aerospace components.
5. Ronnie Screwvala
Net worth: ₹6,500 crore
Company: Unlazer Ventures
Founder of the UTV Group — now Walt Disney India — Unilazer Ventures, and RSVP Movies, Ronnie Screwvala, is among Esquire’s 75 most influential people of the 21st century and ranked 78 among 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2009.
Unilazer Ventures is an investment company looking for potential Indian startups to make early-stage investments or buy significant minority stakes.
Screwvala has also co-founded ed-tech startup upGrad and sports company U Sports, which focuses on kabaddi, e-sports, and football.
6. Rishi Khosla
Wikimedia
Net worth: ₹5,200 crore
Company: OakNorth
The sixth richest new entrant on the Hurun Rich List, Rishi Khosla, is the co-founder of OakNorth Holdings, a fintech company specialising in mid-sized loans for entrepreneurs.
Khosla began his career at ABN Amro and even worked with the offices of Lakshmi Mittal to manage ArcelorMittal’s venture capital and private equity investments.
Before OakNorth, Khosla co-founded Copal Amba with his London School of Economics (LSE) classmate Joel Perlman. Perlman and Khosla maintained their partnership when they co-founded OakNorth Holdings.
7. Sunil Wadhwani
IIT-M
Net worth: ₹5,200 crore
Company: iGate
Sunil Wadhwani co-founded Mastech Inc and iGate with Ashok Trivedi. An Indian Institute of Technology - Madras (IIT-M) alumni. Wadhwani now lives in the US.
Before his partnership with Trivedi, Wadhwani founded UroTech Systems Corp back in 1981.
Under Wadhwani’s leadership, iGate recorded a $1.2 billion in revenue before being acquired by Capgemini in 2015 for a whopping $4 billion — one of the largest deals in the Indian IT sector.
Mastech Inc is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Wadhwani continues to serve on the board of directors and serves as the managing partner of SWAT Capital.
8. Ashok Trivedi
Wikipedia
Net worth: ₹5,100 crore
Company: iGate
Ashok Trivedi was born in Delhi and is a Delhi University (DU) graduate. Like his partner, Sunil Wadhwani, Trivedi currently serves as a managing partner at SWAT Capital.
He is also the founder and trustee of Ashoka University — a private research university with a focus on liberal arts.
9. Yogesh Mathradas Kothari
CII
Net worth: ₹5,000 crore
Company: Alkyl Amines Chemicals
Yogesh Mathradas Kothari is the founder of Alkyl Amines Chemicals and serves as the chairman and managing director of Alkyl Speciality Chemicals.
He’s also the director for a host of other companies, including Anjyko Investments, YMK Trading and Consultancy, Diamines Speciality Chemicals, and Reliance Sibur Elastomer, among others.
Kothari is also a member of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber management committee.
10. Ashok Soota
Wikimedia
Net worth: ₹3,700 crore
Company: Happiest Minds
Happiest Minds CEO Ashok Soota made his debut on the Hurun Rich List, driven by the stellar performance of his company’s ₹702 crore IPO.
Even though he’s 282nd in the overall list, Soota is among the top 10 richest new entrants.
Before this, Soota was the founding chairman and managing director of MindTree. He also has 14 years of experience of working at Wipro and Shriram Refrigeration Industries.