Mittal, Ambanis top Forbes list of Indian billionaires

Industrialists Mukesh and Anil Ambani have moved ahead of Wipro chief, Azim Premji, in ‘India’s 40 Richest’ list as the share prices of the companies owned by both brothers flared up in the last one year.

According to the magazine’s special report on India’s 40 richest persons, NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, has maintained his top place with a networth of $25 billion. Mukesh’s assets rose to $18.5 billion and Anil’s networth to $ 14.8 billion, thus grabbing the second and third places on the list respectively.

Unlike Forbes’ World Billionaires List, this ranking has been broadened to include family fortunes, Forbes said. Thus if the Ambani brothers, who run diversified business empires, had stayed together, their collective fortunes (Mukesh: $18.50 bn and Anil: $14.80 billion) would have surpassed that of Mittal by a wide margin. Anil’s move to list Reliance Infocomm also helped him in the rich-rich sweepstakes.

Two others who’ve returned to the list are automobile major M&M’s chairman Keshub Mahindra, and Infosys Technologies co-founder, K. Dinesh. This year’s dropouts include Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

With a collective wealth of $170 billion, the 40 richest business people accounted for over 22 per cent of India’s GDP, which stood at $775 billion (in 2005-06). The top ten richest alone were worth $112 billion. The ranking includes 36 billionaires, nine more than last year, with the bull run in the stock market playing a key role in inflating the fortunes of the business tycoons, besides the booming real estate market.

The minimum net worth needed to make the cut rose to $790 million up from $590 million previously, Forbes said. But the list’s biggest loser was Anurag Dikshit, who slipped from 10th to 29th rank, on the back of a slide in the stock of his Internet gaming outfit — PartyGaming — over regulatory issues.

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