India makes inroads in Forbes billionaire list

List is a "deceptive distraction," says Mukesh Ambani

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The Indian pack is led by Lakshmi N. Mittal, who heads the world's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal. Mittal is fourth on the list with $45 billion. His company, ArcelorMittal, accounts for 10 percent of all crude steel production in the world.

Close on his heels is Mukesh Ambani with $43 billion. He heads petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India's most valuable company in terms of market capitalization.

His younger brother Anil Ambani, with $42 billion, is the world's sixth richest person, according to Forbes.

Both the brothers inherited their fortune from their late father, renowned industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, before they parted ways.

Since last year, Anil Ambani's wealth has soared by $23.8 billion while elder brother Mukesh saw his wealth rise by $22.9 billion.

At No.8 is real estate tycoon, K.P. Singh, chairman of DLF Ltd., India's biggest real estate developer in terms of market capitalization. Forbes estimates his personal wealth at $30 billion.

In the case of Singh, Forbes noted, "the world's richest real estate baron moved an incredible 54 places to eighth place with his net worth trebling."

Last year, only Mittal made it to the top 10 on the annual survey of the world's billionaires by Forbes.

Other Indians, who feature among the 100 most richest people in the world, are Ravi and Sashi Ruia of India's Essar Group (ranked 43rd with $15 billion); Wipro chairman and founder Azim Premji (ranked 60th with $12.7 billion); Bharti Airtel's Sunil Mittal (ranked 64th with $11.8 billion); Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla Group (ranked 76th with $10.2 billion); Ramesh Chandra of real estate firm Unitech (ranked 86th with $9.6 billion); and newcomer Gautam Adani of London-based trading firm Adani Group (ranked 91st with $9.3 billion).

Adani emerged as Asia's richest newcomer to the list.

Three Indian women made it to Forbes list this year. They are Savitri Jindal of O.P. Jindal Group (ranked 110th with $8.2 billion); Indu Jain, chairperson of media firm Bennett, Coleman & Co. (ranked 236th with $4.4 billion); and Anu Aga of energy and environment management systems company Thermax Group (ranked 1014th with $1.1 billion).

The Indian names dropping out from this year's list are Keshub Mahindra of SUV maker Mahindra & Mahindra and Pradeep Jain of Parshvanath Developers.

Incidentally, the average net worth of Indian billionaires was among the highest. At $6.3 billion, it is more than that of US ($3.4 billion), Russia ($5.4 billion), China ($1.9 billion) as also the global average ($3.9 billion).

According to the 2008 list, which saw Russia, China and India making increasing inroads, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, after 13 years of reigning at the top, has conceded the title of the 'world's richest man' to bridge partner and investment guru "Oracle of Obama" Warren Buffett

Buffett, the 77-year-old chairman and CEO of the Berkshire Hathaway holding company, saw his wealth jump from $52 billion last year to $62 billion while Mexico's telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu saw his wealth soar by $11 billion to $60 billion, pushing Gates to third place with $58 billion (up $2 billion from last year).

"The amazing thing about Buffett going to the top of the list is that he did it at a time when he was giving away his money," said Steve Forbes, the magazine's editor in chief.

Buffett, who announced in 2006 he was giving the majority of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, saw his wealth soar mostly due to the rising value of his Berkshire Hathaway stock.

However, Forbes said Gates would have been "as rich - or richer - than Buffett" if Microsoft's stock had not slipped sharply after it made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo last month.

The 2008 list saw 1,125 people around the world making the billionaire's list, 179 more than last year. As a result, their total net worth has also soared to $4.4 trillion, up from $3.5 trillion dollars in 2007.

"The reason for this explosion in wealth is that we're in the midst of a phenomenal global boom. Never before in human history have so many people in so many parts of the world advanced so quickly economically as has happened in recent years," Forbes said.

By nationality, the US still boasts of largest number of billionaires (469), though interestingly, Buffett and Gates are the only two Americans to feature in the top 10 list which boasts of one Mexican (second-placed Carlos Slim Helu) four Indians (Lakshmi N. Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and K.P. Singh who are placed fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth respectively), a Swede (Ingvar Kamprad who is placed seventh), a Russian (Oleg Deripaska who is placed ninth) and a German (Karl Albrecht who is placed tenth).

While Russia replaces Germany (59) as the No.2 country with 87 billionaires, India is home to 53 billionaires on the list, thanks to a booming economy.

Rival China has 42 billionaires, followed by Turkey with 35 billionaires.

Hong Kong has 26 billionaires, 2 more than Japan, the second largest economy in the world.

According to Forbes, in a first, Moscow has replaced New York City as home to the most billionaires. There are now 74 billionaires in the one-time Communist capital, compared with 71 in the Big Apple.

London (36), Istanbul (34), and Hong Kong (30) round up the top five.

Just as 2008 list saw several new names being added, it also saw a dramatic fall in fortune of some people, viz. Starbucks chief Howard Schultz, whose stock dragged him off the list all together, and Spanish property billionaire Enrique Banuelos, whose wealth plunged from $7.7 billion dollars last year to $1.3 billion in 2008.

The list also saw the average age of billionaires fall by one year to 61, helped by an influx of younger Russians and Chinese, 50 of them under 40.

Meanwhile, the number of women billionaires in 2008 has grown to 99, up from 87 last year, but only 10 percent of them are self-made, Forbes said.

The richest woman in the world is France's Liliane Bettencourt, daughter of founder of cosmetics company L'Oreal, with a personal fortune of $22.9 billion, partly helped by the weak US dollar, which has fallen notably against the euro.

In the Forbes list, Bettencourt is the 17th richest person in the world and the second richest person in France, after LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, who has a personal estimated wealth of $26.0 billion.

The second richest woman is Christy Ruth Walton, the wife of late John T. Walton (son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton). With a personal wealth of $19.2 billion, she is the world's 26th richest person, according to Forbes.

"Most countries outside of the US have benefited from the currency fluctuations," said Forbes' senior editor Luisa Kroll. "It's definitely helped boost the numbers outside of the US."

However, Kroll said, "Despite the turbulence in the U.S. markets, Americans account for 42 percent of the world's billionaires and 37 percent of the total wealth."

The Forbes list includes 226 newcomers with new entries from Nigeria and South Africa.

The richest African is Nigeria's Alhaji Aliko Dangote of Dangote industrial fame and South African gold magnate Patrice Motsepe. Alhaji Dangote, estimated by Forbes to be worth $3.3 billion, is ranked 334th richest person in the world, while Motsepe is ranked 503rd richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $2.4 billion.

The youngest billionaire is 23-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg launched the social-networking site from his Harvard dorm room in 2004. Now the site, which has more than 64 million active users worldwide, is worth a whopping $1.5 billion, earning Zuckerberg the 785th spot on Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest billionaires.

"He is the youngest self-made billionaire in human history," Forbes said.

The richest person under 30-year-old is Yang Huiyan, who at 26, is worth $7.4 billion. Huiyan received 58 percent stake in real estate developer Country Garden from its main founder, her father, Yeung Kwok Keung and is now the richest woman in China.

Meanwhile, according to some people, Forbes list of billionaire is hardly going to influence or change the lives of the super-rich.

According to Robert Miles, author of a biography of Buffett, there is unlikely to be any lavish celebration from the newly anointed richest man in the world, Warren Buffett. Buffett is known for frugality: for his recent wedding to his longtime partner, he bought a discount ring through his own jewelry company and took his bride to a branch of the Bonefish Grill, an America-wide seafood chain.

"I don't think for a moment it's about being number one for him," Miles said. "He's not going to sleep any better or eat any better. It's inconsequential to him."

Buffett's passions include Cherry Coke, hamburgers and homemade candy bars. A Democrat, he says he wants to pay more tax, accusing the Bush administration of lightening the burden on the super-rich.

"Buffett's still living in the same house he bought when he was 28 for $31,000," said Miles, adding, "He (Buffett) will often kid Bill (Gates), who built a $40 million or $50 million mansion, that they ought to bet their houses (when they play bridge)."

World's second richest man Carlos Slim Helu, who comes from a country where half the population lives in poverty, also does not care about wealth rankings. However, unlike Buffett or Gates who are donating billions to charity, Slim eschews grand philanthropy. "Poverty cannot be eradicated through charity," he told an interviewer recently.

As for RIL's Mukesh Ambani, he would rather focus on expanding his business empire than rest on past laurels. "There was much hype over the list of billionaires that India has thrown up... (but) this is a deceptive distraction," Ambani said, soon after the release of Forbes list.

"...it is like Maya (illusion) of our Indian philosophy .... It veils your vision and we should be beware of this titillating illusion," Ambani said while speaking at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi, March 14.

Not totally untrue, since many billionaires, both in India and around the world would have witnessed significant changes in their fortunes following the release of the list, due to market volatility globally.