India home to 70 billionaires; Mukesh Ambani richest Indian

Mumbai, March 2: India is home to the fifth largest group of billionaires in the world and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, is the country's richest man with a personal fortune of $18 billion, says a report.

According China-based research firm Hurun's 2014 global rich list, Mukesh Ambani was ranked 41st in the list that was topped by Bill Gates, whose personal networth stood at a whopping $68 billion. Other noted Indians in the list include Lakshmi N Mittal ranked 49th with a personal net worth of $17 billion.

Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Wipro's Azim Premji both ranked 77th with a personal wealth of $13.5 billion each. Tata Sons' Pallonji Mistry ranked 93rd with a personal wealth of $12 billion.

SP Hinduja & family was ranked 93rd on the list, with a net worth of $12 billion. In the global rich list, Gates was followed by Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett (2nd) with a personal wealth of $64 billion and Amancio Ortega of Inditex was ranked 3rd with $62 billion fortune.

The fourth position was claimed by Carlos Slim Helu & family ($60 billion) while Oracle's Larry Ellison with $60 billion was ranked fifth. The report said that during the past year the Indian rupee weakened 12 per cent against the US Dollar, making it harder for Indians to make the cut-off.

Despite the currency fluctuations, India has improved its position over last year. In the 2014 Hurun global rich list, the country is ranked fifth with 70 billionaires, 17 more than 2013. Interestingly, India has higher number of these super rich individuals than Germany, Switzerland, France and Japan.

The combined wealth of the Indians billionaires comes to a staggering $390 billion. The US is home to 481 billionaires, followed by China with 358 billionaires. The US and China now have half of all billionaires on the planet, the report said, adding that the UK, Japan, Switzerland, India and Russia are growing fast in terms of billionaires.

Moreover, Mumbai is home to 33 billionaires and is among the top six billionaire cities in the world. New York is officially the 'Billionaire Capital of the World' as 84 of the Hurun Billionaires live in the 'Big Apple', up 14 from 70 last year.

The list is a compilation of US dollar billionaires and wealth calculations were a snapshot of the positions on January 17, 2014. The list ranked 1,867 billionaires from 68 countries. The total wealth of these super rich people amounted to an eye-popping $6.9 trillion. Of the 1,867 billionaires, 946 saw their wealth increase and there were 482 new faces. Only 318 individuals saw their wealth decrease and 123 remained unchanged.

The average age is 64, up one year from 2013. One in nine billionaires is a female, compared with one in ten last year, the report said.

PTI