Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, has retained his position as the world?s richest Indian for the second consecutive year, with a networth of $29 billion in the Forbes? billionaire list published on Wednesday. His net worth went up from $19.5 billion last year, when he was seventh. Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive officer of the world?s biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, rose to fifth from eighth. Mittal?s net worth increased $9.4 billion to $28.7 billion as shares of his company have almost doubled in the past year.
The list was topped by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim with $53.5 billion, who beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, becoming the first person from outside the US to lead the rankings in 16 years. The net worth of Slim, who built a telecommunications empire after buying Mexico?s state-run phone monopoly two decades ago, rose $18.5 billion to $53.5 billion. Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., fell to second as his net worth increased $13 billion to $53 billion. Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., was third with $47 billion, a rise of $10 billion.
Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro was ranked 28th with a net worth of $17 billion, followed by Anil Ambani at 36th with $13.7 billion. Shashi & Ravi Ruia of Essar were ranked 40th with a combined net worth of $13 billion. With a net worth of $12.2 billion, Savitri Jindal of the Jindal Group was ranked at 44. Kushal Pal Singh, chairman of DLF ranks 74th with a net worth of $9 billion followed by Kumar Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group at 86th with a net worth of $7.9 billion and Sunil Mittal, chairman and MD of Bharti Group at 86th with a net worth of $7.8 billion.
The number of billionaires climbed to 1,011 from 793 last year, although still below the rankings? high of 1,125 in 2008. Their cumulative net worth increased to $3.6 trillion from $2.4 trillion, and the average jumped $500 million to $3.5 billion. The list includes billionaires from 55 countries. The US has the most with 403, up from 359 last year, while Europe follows with 248. The Asia-Pacific region has 234 people in the rankings, up from 130 in 2009, including 62 newcomers.
?The global boom that we experienced from the 1980s, particularly since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which was temporarily derailed in 2007, now looks like it?s beginning to get back on track,? the magazine?s editor-in-chief, Steve Forbes, said at a press conference in New York on Wednesday. ?But Asia and a handful of others are surging, relatively the United States and western Europe are lagging.?
Slim?s Telefonos de Mexico SAB remains the biggest landline phone company in the country, with about 80% of the lines. His Telmex Internacional SAB, which America Movil is planning to buy, controls Brazil?s biggest long-distance and cable TV companies as well as phone and video carriers in Colombia, Peru and other South American countries.