Ranbaxy’s Malvinder among 6 Indians in Forbes’ billionaire list

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New York, Sep 4 : Six Indians, including Ranbaxy promoter family's Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, Suzlon's Girish Tanti and Indiabulls' Sameer Gehlaut, have made it to a list of 15 youngest Asian billionaires, compiled by business magazine Forbes.

"The country's millionaires jumped 23% last year. The billionaire count soared to 53 from 36 the previous year,"Forbes said, adding that India has maintained its pace in the money race. India, which boast of a competitive demographic advantage of young population, was represented by six people that are under 40 with a cumulative worth of 8.3 billion dollars. Other Indians on the list include real estate firm Oberoi Constructions' Vikas Oberoi and online gambling entity PartyGaming's founder Anurag Dikshit. China dominated the list with as many as eight representations, with a combined wealth of 20 billion dollars.

South Korea and Hong Kong have one each person on the list. Among the Indian representatives, Malvinder and Shivinder Singh command a net worth of 2.5 billion dollars. The two brothers control generic drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories, founded by their grandfather, but sold their holding in the company to Japan's Daiichi earlier this year. Despite the sellout, Malvinder remains CEO of Ranbaxy,while Shivinder runs Indian hospital chain Fortis Healthcare, which went public in 2007.

The brothers also recently listed financial services arm Religare Enterprises. ikas Oberoi, is the second most richest young Indian with a net worth of 1.7 billion dollars. In 1998 he took control of Oberoi Constructions, property developer started byhis father, Ranvir.

Morgan Stanley paid $152 million last year for stake in Oberoi Constructions. Its current projects include a shopping mall and a five-star hotel to be managed by Westin Hotels. Anurag Dikshit with net worth of $1.6 billion is the third richest Indian in the list. Dikshit spearheaded the development of technology that helped in the launch of online poker boom. He started Party Gaming, which owns PartyPoker.com, with a college roommate. PartyPoker stock is off its 2005 high, since US lawmakers cracked down on online gaming, but Dikshit still has plenty of chips, Forbes said.