The largest democracy in the world, India has had recent tremendous economic growth. Its native population is the second-largest in the world after China. India has created a number of billionaire business owners, which is not surprising. India’s high levels of income disparity cause a large number of people to still live in poverty, although the nation has a long history of entrepreneurship and wealth development.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- India is the largest democracy in the world and a developing market that is expanding.
- Despite the fact that a significant portion of the population still lives in abject poverty, there are a number of well-known and successful Indian businesses and entrepreneurs.
- Entrepreneurship and business have a lengthy history in India stretching back to the early 20th century.
1. Dhirubhai Ambani
Indian billionaire Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002) began his career in modesty by selling regional sweets to pious travellers. His company quickly developed, and he moved into sectors like consumer products, information technology, power generation, and logistics. Reliance Industries is currently the largest privately held business in India and is a Fortune 500 firm. According to Forbes, Mukesh Ambani, 65, is one of India’s wealthiest individuals and now serves as the CEO of Reliance.
2. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata or JRD Tata was born to Indian and French parents in Paris in 1904; he passed away in 1993. He received his flight training in Europe and went on to become the country’s first commercial airline pilot. He started out on his own and founded TATA Airlines while working for the TATA group, the family firm, which eventually evolved into the contemporary Air India. When JRD Tata passed away, TATA had approximately 100 separate companies across numerous industries. Notably, his motor company Tata Motors (TTM) manufactures affordable cars that almost all working Indians can afford to own. Jamsetji Tata, who established the TATA group of firms in the middle of the 1800s, is the ancestor of JRD Tata.
3. Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy
A 75-year-old Indian businessman named Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy co-founded the IT behemoth Infosys (INFY) with a 10,000 rupee (about a few hundred dollars) initial investment. He is frequently referred to as the “father of the Indian IT sector” and has a net worth of $3.6 billion. He was Infosys’ CEO from 1981 to 2002 and its chair from 2002 to 2011. Infosys’ market value as of March 2022 was approximately $104.7 billion.
4. Shiv Nadar
With a little investment of a few thousand dollars, Shiv Nadar, now 76, started HCL Infosystems in 1976, selling calculators and microcomputers. In a short period of time after expanding into Singapore and the Far East, HCL made sales of over 1 million rupees. HCL’s continuing expansion has increased Nadar’s net worth to nearly $24.5 billion.
5. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, a 71-year-old Indian businessman, started out by working for his father’s steel company. Due to family strife, he later went on his own and founded ArcelorMittal, one of the largest steel manufacturers in the world (MT). ArcelorMittal’s market capitalization was $25.79 billion as of May 18, 2022. The estimated net worth of Mittal is $16.8 billion.
6. Ghanshyam Das Birla
The well-known Indian industrialist Ghanshyam Das Birla (1894–1983) founded his first business in the early 1900s, running a cotton and textile mill. By 1919, Birla’s enterprises produced a sizable amount of paper and sugar. The Birla Group was a multi-sector worldwide company by the time of his death. His 54-year-old great-grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla, who currently heads the business, has a net worth of $14.3 billion.
7. Dilip Shanghvi
Sun Pharmaceutical was founded in 1982 by 66-year-old Dilip Shanghvi with a small investment of 10,000 rupees, or around $200. Shanghvi was experienced because he was the son of a pharmaceutical distributor. Currently, such investment has increased revenue in 2021 to $4.31 billion by slow development and a number of acquisitions, making Sun Pharma India’s largest pharmaceutical firm. Today, Shanghvi is estimated to be worth $15 billion.
8. Azim Premji
Former chair of Wipro Industries (WIT), a diverse software and technology business that many have compared to Microsoft, Azim Premji, 76, is thought to be worth $9 billion. Premji also goes by the informal moniker of “czar” of the Indian IT industry. As a result, he is sometimes referred to as Bill Gates of India.
9. Mukesh Jagtiani
An Indian-Emirati businessman named Mukesh “Micky” Jagtiani, 70, has lived most of his life outside of India. He received his education in Mumbai and Beirut before moving to London to attend accounting school, where he eventually dropped out. Soon after founding his first business while operating a taxi, Landmark, a retail and real estate behemoth presently based in Dubai, was born. Landmark has also branched out with e-commerce recently. About $3 billion is the value of Jagtiani.
10. Ardeshir Godrej
An Indian-Emirati businessman named Mukesh “Micky” Jagtiani, 70, has lived most of his life outside of India. He received his education in Mumbai and Beirut before moving to London to attend accounting school, where he eventually dropped out. Soon after founding his first business while operating a taxi, Landmark, a retail and real estate behemoth presently based in Dubai, was born. Landmark has also branched out with e-commerce recently. About $3 billion is the value of Jagtiani.
