Top 10 famous Indian Entrepreneurs- Business2Business

Being the country where a large number of people live in extreme poverty, there are also a number of rich Indian entrepreneurs and businessmen.

Here is a list of ten Indian entrepreneurs who have contributed to the development of the Indian economy:

1. Dhirubhai Ambani
Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002) was an Indian entrepreneur who began humbly by selling traditional snacks to religious pilgrims. His business grew rapidly, expanding and diversifying into industries including telecommunications, power generation, information technology, FMCG and logistics.

Today, Reliance Industries is India's largest private company and is listed in the Fortune 500. Ambani's son now runs Reliance and is one of the richest people in India. Mukesh Ambani, 65, has a net worth of 92.5 billion dollars, according to Forbes.



2. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata or JRD Tata (1904-1993) was born in Paris to Indian and French parents. He trained as a pilot in Europe and later became India's first commercial airline pilot. Working for the family business, Tata Group, he became independent and built Tata Airlines, which eventually became the modern Air India.

At the time of JRD Tata's death, TATA owned almost 100 different companies in various industries. In particular, his car company, Tata Motors (TTM), produces inexpensive cars that almost every working Indian can own. JRD Tata is descended from Jamsetji Tata, who founded the TATA Group of companies in the mid-19th century.



3. Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy
Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, 75, is an Indian entrepreneur who co-founded IT giant Infosys (INFY) with an initial investment of Rs 10,000, or just a few hundred dollars in today's terms.

He has a net worth of 3.6 billion dollars and is often referred to as the father of India's IT industry, having served as CEO of Infosys from 1981 to 2002 and then as Chairman until 2011. Infosys' market value was roughly 104.7 billion dollars as of March 2022.



4. Shiv Nadar
Shiv Nadar, 76, founded HCL Infosystems in 1976 with an investment of a few thousand dollars, selling calculators and minicomputers. HCL soon expanded into Singapore and the Far East, generating sales of over Rs 1 crore soon after its expansion. HCL continued to grow, making Nadar a billionaire worth more than 24.5 billion dollars.



5. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, 71, is an Indian entrepreneur who started his career at his father's steel company. He later started on his own, due to family infighting that created ArcelorMittal, which is now one of the world's largest steel companies. ArcelorMittal's market capitalization was 25.79 billion dollars as of May 18, 2022. Mittal himself has a net worth of around 16.8 billion dollars.



6. Ghanshyam Das Birla
Ghanshyam Das Birla (1894-1983), a well-known Indian entrepreneur who founded his first company in the early 20th century operating a cotton and textile factory. By 1919, Birla's business also included a large production of paper and sugar. When he died, the Birla Group was a multi-sector global conglomerate.

His grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla, 54, now runs the company and has a net worth of 14.3 billion dollars.



7. Dilip Shanghvi
Dilip Shanghvi, 66, founded Sun Pharmaceutical in 1982 with a meager investment of 10,000 rupees, or about 200 dollars. As the son of a drug dealer, Shanghvi knew what he was doing. Today, through gradual development and a series of acquisitions, this investment has increased revenue in 2021 to 4.31 billion dollars, making Sun Pharma India the largest pharmaceutical company in India.

Shanghvi's estimated current net worth is 15 billion dollars.



8. Azim Premji
Azim Premji, 76, has a net worth of 9 billion dollars and is the former chairman of Wipro Industries (WIT), a diversified software and technology company that many have compared to Microsoft. As a result, Premji is referred to as the Indian Bill Gates, along with his unofficial title of "czar" of the Indian IT industry.



9. Mukesh Jagtiani
Mukesh "Micky" Jagtiani, 70, is an Emirati-Indian entrepreneur who has spent most of his life outside of India. While educated in Mumbai and Beirut, he moved to London to study accounting before dropping out. Shortly thereafter, he founded his first company while driving a taxi, and eventually his company became real estate and retail giant Landmark, now based in Dubai.

In recent years, Landmark has expanded into e-commerce. Jagtiani has a net worth of around 3 billion dollars.



10. Ardeshir Godrej
Ardeshir Godrej (1868-1936) co-founded the Godrej Group, a diversified conglomerate with interests in real estate, consumer products, security, home appliances, and industrial goods. The company's beginnings were humble: Ardeshir and his brother succeeded in making locks after failed ventures in the field of handmade medical devices.

Godrej Group was founded in 1897 and today the Godrej Companies has revenues of more than 6 billion dollars. His grandson Adi Godrej, 80, who runs the company, has a net worth of 2.5 billion dollars.