Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes India rich-list as Laxmi Mittal’s fortune drops amid Euro zone crisis
However, even Ambani could not escape the effect of the global economic downturn. The 55-year-old entrepreneur’s assets dropped by around $1.6bn.
World’s biggest steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal’s chief Laxmi Mittal took the number two spot with a net worth of $16bn. Mittal who lives in Kensington Palace Gardens, London, saw his fortune plunge by about $10bn in the last two years owing to the Euro zone debt crisis and the global financial slowdown. In the last year, Mittal’s assets dropped by over $3bn. The 62-year-old steel magnate was named the sixth richest person in the world by Forbes in 2011.
Meanwhile software services giant Wipro’s Azim Premji was named the third richest Indian with a value of $12.2bn. Premji’s net worth soared to more than $12bn amid healthy growth in the software services sector. The business tycoon was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award by the Indian government in 2011.
Pallonji Mistry whose family is one of the largest stakeholders of Tata company was the fourth person on the Forbes India billionaire list. His net worth of $9.8bn is $2.2bn more from the previous year. The family heir Cyrus Pallonji Mistry is set to takeover Tata when current head Ratan Tata steps down in December 2012.
Other prominent names on the Indian rich-list was Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharmaceutical at $9.2bn; Adi Godrej of the Godrej Group at $9bn; and Savitri Jindal, the chair of OP Jindal Group with a net worth of $8.2bn.
Shashi and Ravi Ruia of the Essar Group and Hinduja Brothers also made it to the top ten.
The last spot on the top ten India’s rich-list was occupied by industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla. The chairman of the Aditya Birla Group’s net worth was at $7.8bn.
The Forbes India rich list special edition will be released on November 2, 2012. "This edition of the Forbes India Rich List comes at an extraordinary moment in India’s history,” the Forbes website quoted its editor Indrajit Gupta. “We need a new burst of entrepreneurial energy, creativity and innovation to lift our economy,” Gupta was further quoted.
According to the magazine, there are 61 billionaires (dollar) in Indian in 2012 up from last year’s 57.
