The richest Indian, according to the magazine, is information technology magnate Azim Hasham Premji with a net worth of $ 2.8 billion. Premji is placed 177 on the 13th annual list of Forbes'

, which begins with US software magnate Bill Gates' name ($ 90 billion). Premji is the chairman and main promoter of Bangalore-based Wipro.

Premji has surpassed the wealth of N Lakshmi Mittal who commands $ 1.9 billion (Ispat International with headquarters in London), industrialist Dhirubai Ambani of Reliance Industries and software developer Shiv Nadar of the HCL group (both $ 1.2 billion),Kumar Mangalam Birla ($ 1.1 billion) of the Aditya Birla group, Adi Godrej and the Hinduja brothers ($ one billion each) among Indians.

The wealth of these magnates was calculated on the basis of the market value of their personal holdings in various companies owned by them. Ratan Tata, chief of the Tata group - the numero uno Indian business group - does not figure in the list as he does not have a big personal holding in various Tata companies.

Bill Gates, chief of software giant Microsoft Corporation, remains the world's richest man with a net worth of $ 90 billion thanks to the internet and a booming stock market, according to a new survey by Forbes Magazine. Last year, Gates, 43, topped the list with a net worth of $ 51 billion. And while the rich keep getting richer, Gates still leaves his nearest competition in his dust. The second richest person in the world, according to the survey, is investor Warren Buffet, 68, worth a paltry $ 36 billion.

Paul Allen, 46, co-founder with Gates ofMicrosoft back in the 1970s, was third with $ 30 billion, and Steven Ballmer, 43, Gates' current right-hand man at Microsoft, was fourth with $ 19.5 billion.

The richest working European in the survey was the Albrecht family of Germany, owners of the Aldi Discount retailer chain. Their net worth was put at $ 13.6 billion.

Asia's richest worker was Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, 42, worth $ 15 billion thanks to savvy investing in US and European stocks. He was followed by Hong Kong industrialist Li Ka-Shing, 71, worth $ 12.7 billion.

Despite East Asia's financial woes, the Forbes list of the 200 richest working people in the world included 50 Asian billionaires, up from 44 last year. The average wealth of Asian billionaires was $ 3.7 billion, up slightly from $ 3.6 billion in 1998.

Mexican telephone magnate Carlos Slim Helu, 59, leads the list for the western hemisphere outside the United States and Canada, with a net worth of $ 8 billion. Argentine energyindustrialist Gregorio Perez Companc, 64, follows with $ 3.6 billion.