Forbes World Billionaire list: While India has a whopping 121 billionaires, with 19 more ultra-rich making it to the coveted list this year, the country lags behind the United States and China which have way more billionaires. According to Forbes, the US has 585 billionaires and China has a total of 373 this year in the coveted “Three Comma Club,” referring to the three commas used to spell out the billion figure. Interestingly, while India may be behind China, the country has been creating a billionaire a month since 2010. Notably, India had just 12 billionaires in 2005, and now 121 ultra-rich Indians have made it to the Forbes list. In 2017, there were 102 Indians on the list of Forbes World Billionaires.
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries retained his position as the richest Indian, richer by $16.9 billion in 2018 with assets of $40.1 billion, the list released by Forbes yesterday. Notably, Ambani is now the 19th richest billionaire on the list of 2,208 business magnates worldwide compiled by Forbes. In 2017, he was ranked 33rd with $23.2 billion. Savitri Jindal of the Jindal steel is the richest Indian women on the list and ranked 176th globally with a staggering net worth of $8.8 billion.
It is intriguing to note that the Indian pharmaceutical sector has produced the most number of billionaires, with 16 business tycoons including Sun Pharmaceuticals founder Dilip Shanghvi, chairman of Poonawalla group Cyrus Poonawalla, and Piramal’s founder Ajay Piramal making it to the list. Apart from pharma, consumer goods created 15 billionaires, while 9 leading business from real-estate feature in the list. Software and diversified investments sector produced 8 billionaires each.
Among the billionaires from United States, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos came out on top of the global list with with assets valued at an eye-popping $112 billion, overtaking Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates whose fortunes are valued at $90 billion and investor Warren Buffet with $84 billion. Notably, Bill Gates ranked first globally with $86 billion, Buffet second with $75.6 billion and Bezos third with $72.8 billion.
Notable billionaires from China include Tencent’s Ma Huetend with assets valued at $45.3 billion, followed by Alibaba’s Jack Ma ranked 20th globally with net worth of 39 billion and the real estate tycoon Hui Ka Yan with net worth at $30.3 billion. Interestingly, the Billionaires’ Wealth to GDP ratio last year rose to 11% in India from 7.5% in 2005 as per an Ahmadoff and Company report. Further, the report says that the Billionaires’ Wealth to GDP ratio in the world stood at 8.6%.