Gates back as world’s richest man; Mukesh wealthiest Indian

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New York: With a fortune of $40 billion, software czar Bill Gates has regained his position as the world’s wealthiest from his friend and legendary investor Warren Buffett, even as the economic crisis wiped off $2 trillion from the wealth of billionaires across the world.

Gates, who himself lost $18 billion in the past one year, is followed by Buffett ($37 billion) at the second and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim ($35 billion) at the third position as per the World’s Billionaires list released by the US magazine Forbes.

Buffett was ranked as the richest person in the world in last year’s list, followed by Carlos Slim and Gates at second and third positions respectively. There are 793 billionaires in the world now, down about 30% from 1,125 a year ago, while collectively they have become poorer from $4.4 trillion to $2.4 trillion.

There are just two Indians in the list of top 10 richest persons across the world, down from four last year. Indian petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani has been ranked as the richest among all the Indians with a net worth of $19.5 billion, followed by NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal ($19.3 billion).

In the global list, Ambani is ranked seventh (down from fifth last year) and Mittal is at eighth position (fourth in 2008). Others in the top 10 include software firm Oracle’s chief Lawrence Ellison (4th; $22.5 billion), Sweden’s Ingvar Kamprad (5th; $22 billion), Germany’s Karl Albrecht (6th; $21.5 billion), Germany’s Theo Albrecht (9th; $18.8 billion) and Spain’s Amancio Ortega (10th; $18.3 billion). The previous year’s list also included Anil Ambani at the sixth position (down to 34th this year) and realty baron KP Singh at the eighth position (down to 98 in this year’s list). Overall, the Indians’ presence on the list has shrunk to half from 53 last year to 24 in the latest list, Forbes said.