Tirupati's Lord Venkateswara temple is worth more than Wipro, Nestle, and state-owned oil companies ONGC and IOC combined based on market capitalization. This is for the first time since its creation in 1933, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, custodian of the temple devoted to Tirupati's presiding deity, disclosed its financial status. According to stock market statistics, the present market value of Tirupati temple is more than the market value of numerous blue chip Indian companies.
10.25 tonnes of gold in bank vaults, 2.5 tonnes of gold jewellery, roughly Rs 16,000 crore in bank deposits, and 960 properties in India make up its assets. Together, they amount to more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore.
Wipro, situated in Bengaluru, had a market valuation of Rs 2.14 lakh crore as of Friday's conclusion of trade, while UltraTech Cement, based in the same city, was worth Rs 1.99 lakh crore. The India division of the Swiss multinational food and beverage giant Nestle was also valued at less than it, at Rs 1.96 lakh crore.
About a dozen corporations have a higher market value than the temple trust. Reliance Industries Ltd, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is one of these with Rs 17.53 lakh crore. Other companies with enormous market caps include Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 11.76 lakh crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 8.34 lakh crore), Infosys (Rs 6.37 lakh crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 6.31 lakh crore), Hindustan Unilever Ltd (Rs 5.92 lakh crore), State Bank of India (Rs 5.29 lakh crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 4. (Rs 4.38 lakh crore).
Several other large Indian companies were valued lower than the temple trust, including the state-owned oil giants Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the power giant NTPC Ltd, the automakers Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Motors, the world's largest coal producer Coal India Ltd, the mining conglomerate Vedanta, and the real estate firm DLF.
A temple official has said that the wealth of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) is increasing as a result of an increase in both the cash and gold offerings given by worshippers and the interest revenue generated by fixed deposits at local banks.
In the form of contributions to the temple, worshipers have endowed TTD with a variety of real estate, construction, cash, and gold holdings.
Officials at the temple claimed that the precious antique jewellery and assets, such as cottages and guest homes, located on the seven hills to give facilities to devotees, should not be included in the estimated general asset value since doing so may be deceptive.
Devotees consider the seven hills to be holy ground, the place where Lord Venkateswara resides.
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The TTD has estimated about Rs 668 crore in interest revenue from bank deposits in its annual budget for 2022-23, which was published in February and has a total anticipated expenditure of nearly Rs 3,100 crore. It was also estimated that the hundi of the hill temple will bring in a total of Rs 1,000 crore only from monetary offerings made by the temple's 2.5 million regular visitors.
More than a thousand temples across the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, Haryana, Maharashtra, and the capital of New Delhi are under the care of TTD.
(With inputs from PTI)
