Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma Enters Billionaires Club, Flipkart's Bansals Out

“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver” —Ayn Rand

Ecommerce and payment platform Paytm garnered major traction during the demonetisation drive. Cashing in on the wave, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has managed to gatecrash the Indian billionaire’s club. On the other hand, Flipkart co-founders Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal are no more on the list.

China-based research firm Hurun recently published its ranking of the world’s billionaires – the Global Rich List for 2017. The firm is publishing this list for the sixth time. Wealth calculations for the same are a snapshot of January 15, 2017.

Indian billionaires do not feature in the top 10 list. According to the list, the richest Indian is Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, Mukesh Ambani. He is ranked number 29, with a cumulative wealth of $26 Bn.

As per the report, currently there are 2,257 billionaires in the world. The total wealth of these billionaires is 10.7 % of the global GDP and totals up to $8 Tn.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates is the richest billionaire with a net worth of $81 Bn. Warren Buffet follows him on the second spot, with a net worth of $78 Bn. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is ranked third, with a net worth of $72 Bn.

World’s Top 10 Richest Billionaires

The list saw 23 new entrants to the top 100 spots, led by Chinese Express Delivery King Wang Wei, of SF Express, on number 25.

Some Findings

8 of 10 world’s richest billionaires are from the US.
The highest number of billionaires are in China (609), followed by the US (552) and Germany (109). India is ranked fourth on the list, ahead of UK and Switzerland. It currently has only 100 billionaires. 11 less than last year.
Harvard produced more billionaires than any other school.
The oldest billionaire on the list is David Rockefeller Sr, aged 101.
The richest female billionaire is Loreal’s Liliane Bettencourt, ranked 12 with a net worth of $37 Bn, followed by Alice Walton of Walmart – ranked 16 with a net worth of $31 Bn.
Elon Musk broke into top 100 for the first time and is ranked 75, with a net worth of $14 Bn.

Where India Stands

Mumbai was the only city from India that made it to the top 20 cities where billionaires reside. It was ranked 8th with 42 billionaires.
Pharmaceuticals is the preferred sector for 20 billionaires, followed by manufacturing and TMT each with 10.
The combined wealth of the Indian billionaires declined by 1% to $304 Bn.
The average age of Indian billionaires is 64.