Around 4% of world's billionaires are Indians: Forbes

New York, Mar 8: India is home to over four per cent of the world's billionaires, including the likes of the Ambani brothers, Azim Premji and N R Narayan Murthy alongside Warren Buffet and Bill Gates in Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's richest people.

Forbes's list of 1226 billionaires is topped by Mexico's 72-year-old telecom czar Carlos Slim, boasting of a networth of USD 69 billion. Slim retained his title as the world's richest man for the third year in a row.

In the second spot is Microsoft founder Gates with a USD 61 billion networth followed by American investment giant and philanthropist Buffet whose networth is USD 44 billion. Forbes said this year's 1,226 billionaires are a record high, up one per cent from last year's total.

The numbers are up significantly from the 140 billionaires who had made the cut when the list was first released 25 years ago. Between them, this year's billionaires are worth a record USD 4.6 trillion and have an average net worth of USD 3.7 billion.

The list has 48 billionaires from India as well as nine of Indian-origin living in countries like Indonesia, Ireland, Thailand, UK and the US, taking the total number of billionaires hailing from India to 57. India's 48 billionaires have a total networth of USD 194.6 billion. Among India's billionaires, the richest is Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani with a networth of USD 22.3 billion. The 54-year-old is ranked 19 in the global rich list.

"Mukesh Ambani is the world's richest Indian, despite losing USD 4.7 billion in the past year," Forbes said. The publication added that a spat between Ambani's oil and gas conglomerate Reliance and India's Oil Ministry over declining output at KG-D6, India's largest offshore gas field, has dragged down the market cap of the country's most valuable company.

PTI