Exclusive club: These few surnames dominate India's richest families, says Hurun's list

Mumbai dominates as the city with the most listed families (91), followed by the NCR (62) and Kolkata (25).

The number of rich and successful business families have grown significantly in the last few years in India. However, despite the surge, this growing club of billionaires and millionaires is dominated by families belonging to just 10 or 11 surnames.

According to ‘2025 Barclays Private Clients Hurun India Most Valuable Family Businesses List’, these surnames own most of India’s major businesses. The report included families with a total wealth of Rs 1,100 crore.

While Mukesh Ambani-led family topped the chart with a valuation of Rs 28.2 lakh crore, followed by the Birla family, it was mostly the north Indian surnames that dominated the overall list of the ultra rich.

Agarwal and Gupta were the two most shared surnames by India’s richest business families, both tied at 12, followed by the Patel at 10, Jain at 9 and Mehta, Goenka and Shah at 5 each. Singh, Rao and Doshi completed the top 10 surnames with 4 each families of India’s wealthiest, according to the report.

Moreover, the report noted that 100 new families entered the rankings this year, expanding the list to 300. These businesses generated an average of Rs 7,100 crore every day in the past year, contributed Rs 1.8 lakh crore in taxes, 15 percent of India's corporate tax collections, and employed over 2 million people, more than the population of Bahrain.

The study highlights a surge in billion-dollar family enterprises, with 161 families now valued above $1 billion, up 37 from last year. Haldiram's family remains the most valuable unlisted company for the second year at Rs 85,800 crore. Notably, 22 family businesses on the list are led by women, while 62 have professional CEOs.

Mumbai dominates as the city with the most listed families (91), followed by the NCR (62) and Kolkata (25). Industrial products lead in numbers with 48 companies, but automobiles and auto components boast the highest average valuation at Rs 52,320 crore.

In addition, University of Mumbai was the preferred destination of most of these rich families for their education over the years in the country, followed by University of Delhi and the University of Calcutta.

Harvard Business School was the top choice among the ultra-rich for post-graduate courses.

With agency inputs

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