Mukesh Ambani India's richest person, Bill Gates richest man in world: Forbes

New Delhi, Mar 1: Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani is on the top again! He again topped 84 Indian billionaires in Forbes 2016 list of the world's richest people once again headed by Bill Gates with a net worth of $75 billion.

Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates continued his reign as the world's richest person with a net worth of USD 75 billion, according to Forbes' annual ranking of billionaires, with Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani leading the pack of 84 Indian billionaires in 2016.

Mukesh Ambani with a net worth of $19.3 billion was ranked 36th among world's 1,810 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $6.48 trillion, down from $7.05 trillion last year.

Technology guru Gates, who has topped the list for 17 of the last 22 years was followed by Spanish clothing retailer Amancio Ortega, best known for the Zara fashion chain, with Warren Buffett remaining in the third spot.

The US led with the greatest number of billionaires, with 540, followed by China with 251, Germany with 120, India with 84 and Russia with 77.

China had the most of 198 newcomer billionaires, adding 70 to the list. Thirty-three newcomers were from the US, 8 from India and 28 from Germany.

Notable newcomers included Flipkart cofounders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (No. 1476) of India.

India's top ten: 1 (world ranking 36) Mukesh Ambani $19.3 bn; 2 (44) Dilip Shanghvi $16.7 bn; 3 (55) Azim Premji $15 bn; 4 (88) Shiv Nadar $11.1 bn; 5 (133) Cyrus Poonawalla $8.5 bn; 6 (135) Lakshmi Mittal $8.4 bn; 7 (184) Uday Kotak $6.3 bn; 8 (196) Kumar Birla $6.1 bn; 9 (219) Sunil Mittal $5.7 bn; 10 (233)Desh Bandhu Gupta $5.5 bn.

Telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu (No. 4) dropped two spots, and his net worth decreased to $50 billion from $77.1 billion last year.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos (No. 5) moved up to the fifth from the fifteenth spot last year; his net worth increased to $45.2 billion.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg (No. 6) moved into the top 10 for the first time. He was the biggest gainer with his fortune going up by $11.2 billion for a total net worth of $44.6 billion. He is the sixth richest in the world.

Forbes said, "Ambani, 58, has retained his position as India's richest person despite shares of his oil and gas giant Reliance Industries taking a hit due to lower oil prices. He is ranked 36th on the list with a net worth of USD 20.6 billion, the magazine said, adding that "the USD 62.2 billion (revenues) firm is likely to resume buying crude oil from Iran after the lifting of sanctions."

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)