India's richie rich club has few women, Savitri Jindal at top

New Delhi: As many as seven women have been named in India’s 100 richest persons list, including O P Jindal group Chairperson Savitri Jindal and biotechnology pioneer Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Savitri Jindal and family ranked the highest at the 16th place on the coveted list with a net worth of INR 480.17 billion, which was topped by Mukesh Ambani for the tenth straight year with a net worth of a staggering INR 2,432.85 billion. Savitri Jindal was followed by the Gupta family, which was ranked at the 40th place with a fortune of INR 220.88 billion in Forbes magazine’s annual ‘India Rich List 2017’.

The Gupta family gets its fortune from a 47 per cent stake in pharma major Lupin, founded by Desh Bandhu Gupta, who died in June 2017. Manju Desh Bandhu Gupta, wife of the late patriarch, is Non-Executive Chairman of Lupin. The coveted list also includes Vinod and Anil Rai Gupta and family, ranked 48th with a net worth of INR 199.11 billion. Mother and son Vinod and Anil Rai Gupta draw their fortune from a 60 per cent holding in flagship Havells India, founded by Vinod’s late husband Qimat Rai Gupta in 1958 as an electricals trading business.

At the 51st place is the Jain family with a net worth of INR 192.07 billion. The Jain family controls media powerhouse Bennett, Coleman and Co, which is run by brothers Samir and Vineet, sons of matriarch Indu Jain, Forbes said. Moreover, the Amalgamations family was ranked at the 63rd place with a net worth of INR 160.06 billion.

The group best known for tractor manufacturer TAFE, and diesel engine maker Simpson and Co was founded by the late S Anantharamakrishnan. The group is chaired by S Anantharamakrishnan’s son, A Krishnamoorthy, while the chairman’s niece Mallika Srinivasan, a Wharton graduate, runs TAFE, the world’s third-largest tractor maker, Forbes said.

Other women on the wealthiest Indians list include Leena Tewari at the 71st slot with a net worth of (INR 140.21 billion). Tewari chairs privately-held USV India, which her late father Vithal Gandhi set up with Revlon in 1961. USV specialises in diabetic and cardiovascular drugs, with a portfolio that spans across biosimilar drugs, injectables and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Mazumdar-Shaw, with a fortune of INR 138.29 billion, was placed at the 72nd position. She is India’s richest self-made woman and founded biopharma firm Biocon in 1978. Biocon makes a range of generics to treat, among much else, autoimmune diseases, diabetes and cancer. The company is Asia’s largest insulin producer with a factory in Malaysia’s Johor region, Forbes said.