The Hindu : Front Page : Buffett richest; Anil Ambani gains most

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Friday, Mar 07, 2008
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Buffett richest; Anil Ambani gains most

New York: In changing sweepstakes in world’s billionaire club, India’s Anil Ambani has emerged as the biggest wealth creator, while famed American investor Warren Buffett has overtaken software czar Bill Gates and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim to lead the list of world’s richest people released by Forbes on Thursday.

As many as four Indians — steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and realty baron K.P. Singh — have made it to top 10 positions, as against just one, Mr. Mittal, a year ago.

India has retained its position as the top source of billionaires in Asia with total 53 persons, who have a cumulative networth of $340.9 billion on Forbes’ 2008 World’s Billionaires list consisting of 1,125 persons with a combined wealth of $4.4 trillion. A year ago, there were just 179 billionaires, Forbes said.

With a networth of $62 billion, Mr. Buffett has topped the list, followed by Carlos Slim Helu ($60 billion) and Mr. Gates ($58 billion) on second and third positions.

They are followed by three Indians — Lakshmi Mittal ($45 billion), Mr. Mukesh Ambani ($43 billion) and Mr. Anil Ambani ($42 billion) on fourth, fifth and sixth ranks.

Besides, DLF’s K.P. Singh ($30 billion) has been ranked, after Sweden’s Ingvar Kamprad ($31 billion).

Forbes said Mr. Anil Ambani is the biggest gainer with wealth soaring by $23.8 billion since the last list. He is only one billion dollars behind his brother, who is the second biggest gainer with a rise of $22.9 billion in his networth. Mr. Mittal has gained $13 billion from last year, pushing him one place higher to fourth rank this year. Among Indians, Mr. Mittal, the Ambanis and Mr. Singh are followed by Essar group’s Shashi and Ravi Ruia at 43rd rank globally with a combined networth of $15 billion, Wipro’s Azim Premji (60th with $12.7 billion), Sunil Mittal and family (64th with $11.8 billion) and Kumar Birla (76th with $10.2 billion).

These are followed by Unitech’s Ramesh Chandra (86th with $9.6 billion), Guatam Adani (91st with $9.3 billion), Savitri Jindal (110th with $8.2 billion), Anil Agarwal (164th with $6 billion), Adi Godrej (178th with $5.5 billion) and GMR’s GM Rao (198th with $5.2 billion).

Forbes said the number of billionaires had crossed into four figure for the first time and two-third of them are self-made billionaires, having built their empires from scratch. The total number of Asian billionaires jumped by a third to 211 with a total wealth of $804 billion. — PTI

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