highlights

Forbes: India's 100 richest worth 25 percent of GDP

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-19 22:08

NEW DELHI: The Billionaires Club of India almost doubled from last year to 54 members up from 27, aided by a rebounding stock market that gained two-thirds in the past year and an economy growing at six percent, said the Forbes Asia magazine on Thursday.

The country's 100 richest people have a combined net worth of 276 billion US dollars, which was almost a quarter of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Last year, there were only 27 billionaires on the India Rich List. This year, the number has almost doubled to 52, two short of what India had at the peak of the stock market boom in 2007.

Mukesh Ambani, heading Reliance Industries Limited, is once again the wealthiest person in India with his net worth increasing by 54 percent to 32 billion US dollars from nearly 21 billion last year.

Trailing behind him are Lakshmi Mittal with a net worth of 30 billion US dollars, up 46 percent from 20.5 billion, and Mukesh' s estranged brother, Anil, whose net worth of 17.5 billion US dollars, 40 percent higher than before, put him in the third place.

India Editor of Forbes Asia Naazneen Karmali said in a statement, "Happy days are definitely back again for India's richest. This year's list shows yet again that when conditions in the financial markets and the economy are right, India has the scale and resources to produce billionaires faster than most of the countries on earth."

Though, the top 10 positions remain largely unchanged, there are some shifts in fortunes across the list.

Sunil Mittal of Bharti Telecom has moved down from number four to number eight and Wipro's Azim Premji has moved up to number four position.

The Ruia brothers of Essar company, with a net worth of 13.6 billion US dollars, have made it to number five this year.

Adi Godrej of Godrej Industries has moved out of the top 10 to the number 12 position. Savitri Jindal, non-executive chairwoman of OP Jindal Group, at a net worth of 12 billion US dollars this year, has made it to number seven on the list. She is one of only six women on the list.