Meet India's 53 Forbes billionaires: 19 newcomers, 28 'self-made'

Meet Sameer Gehlaut, 34. Engineer from IIT-Delhi. Self-made entrepreneur who launched online brokerage Indiabulls in 2000, diversified into real estate, picked up high-end land in high-end auctions in Delhi and Mumbai. And, almost as a by-product, is India's youngest billionaire, according to Forbes which released its list of 1,125 wealthiest people today.

At $1.2 billion, Gehlaut is the world's 962nd wealthiest person, and India's 45th — above inheritors of fortunes like the Habil 'Wockhardt' Khorakiwala, Anu 'Thermax' Aga and Rahul Bajaj. Among other self-made billionaires in the list, Gehlaut beats Nandan Nilekani and Senapathy Gopalakrishnan of Infosys, Jignesh Shah of Financial Technologies and investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

All told, the 53 billionaires from India take the country to the No. 4 rank, after US' 469, Russia's 87 and Germany's 59. At 42 and 18, China and Brazil are behind India. Of the 53, 19, including Gehlaut, are newcomers, 28 are self-made. Among the self-made, and beyond the usual suspects — Sunil 'Airtel' Mittal ($11.8 billion), Ramesh 'Unitech' Chandra ($9.6 billion), or Gautam 'Mundra' Adani ($9.3 billion, Asia's wealthiest newcomer) — the list throws up new insights, defines a new India.

Mukesh Ambani's (at $43 billion and just $2 billion short of Lakshmi Mittal, India's wealthiest person) long-time friend and plastic sacks maker Anand Jain, at $3.4 billion, is the 34th wealthiest Indian. The list includes airport and infrastructure developers G M Rao (son of a commodities trader, now worth $5.2 billion) and G V Krishna Reddy (son of a farmer, now worth $1.5 billion).

The four Tanti brothers individually — Tulsi ($3 billion), Girish and Jitendra ($1.3 billion) and Vinod ($1.2 billion) —broaden the list and show how wealth can be created literally out of, well, wind. After energy and infrastructure billionaires come self-made billionaires from software, finance, media, real estate and pharmaceuticals.

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