Real estate developers, women elbow their way into latest list of Indian billionaires

New Delhi, June 24 : Over the past two years 22 new individuals have been added to the list of Indian billionaires, taking the number to 162, out of which 37 are women, and true to expectation, nearly 50 of them made their fortune through real estate development.

According to the report compiled by the Businessworld, there are 162 new rupee billionaires in terms of rupees, 37 of who are women, with majority of them being first generation and second generation entrepreneurs.

Anand Jain and Family emerged as the top Indian billionaire with a net worth of Rs 5386.26 crore, with real estate developer Rohtas Goel and Family Omaxe being a distant second with a net worth of Rs 3208.46 crore.

Pia Singh DLF Real Estate emerged as the top woman billionaire with a net worth of Rs 2501.94 crore, who was otherwise allotted the eighth spot in the list of top Indian billionaires.

This year's new billionaires are collectively worth Rs. 93,821 crore, said the report, and revealed that the net worth of real estate Billionaires went up from just Rs. 2,787 crore in 2006 to Rs 39,332 crore in 2008: a 14-fold increase.

The survey on the basis of which the list was prepared looked only at those who made their money legally or in the hustle and bustle of the marketplace.

According to the list, the top Indian billionaires in Rs crores are:

Anand Jain 5386.26

Rohtas Goel 3208.46

Virendra D Mhaiskar 3144.99

Kishore Biyani 3035.67

Sudhir Mehta 2810.99 Pradeep Jain 2650.21

Saurabh Kumar 2569.22

Pia Singh 2501.94

Sobha Menon 2486.78

Pankaj R Patel 2303.10

ANI