MUMBAI // The corruption scandals and red tape that have hampered India's recent growth took their toll on some of the country's richest people this year, Forbes magazine's latest rankings showed.
But the top 100 were able to weather the storm as their wealth rose 3.7 per cent to US$250 billion (Dh918.18bn) despite seven people losing more than $1bn each over the past 12 months. Six people gained at least $1bn.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, the chairman of the telecoms giant Bharti Airtel and Gautam Adani, the chairman of the energy-focused Adani Group, dropped out of Forbes' annual list of the 10 richest Indians, as uncertainty and controversy gripped their industries.
The fallout from a scandal that saw 2G licenses sold illegally in 2008 has rumbled on through this year as the government has grappled with how to re-auction the airwaves.
India's power and coal industries, meanwhile, have been plagued by shortages and delays in mining approvals, due in part to scrutiny after accusations that the government allocated coal blocks to private companies at below-market prices.
Mukesh Ambani was India's richest man for the fifth straight year, with wealth of US$21bn even as his Reliance Industries lost about 7 per cent of its value.