Nine Indians in Forbes' billionaires list

New York, Feb. 27: Nine Indians led by Wipro chairman Azim Premji have found place in the list of billionaires worldwide this year which is once again topped by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Premji with a net worth of $6.7 billion occupied 58th position closely followed by Lakshmi Mittal who is worth $6.2 billion and found 62nd slot on overall Forbes’ list of a record number of 587 billionaires, including 64 newcomers.

Mukesh and Anil Ambani are worth $six billion and placed 65th followed by Kumar Mangalam Birla who found 147th position and is worth $3.2 billion.

Sunil Mittal is placed at 186th position and has a net worth of $2.7 billion followed by Pallonji Mistry who is worth $2.3 billion and found 231st position.

Adi Godrej and family, according to Forbes, are worth $2 billion and got 277th slot. Shiv Nadar is worth $1.8 billion and Anil Agarwal $one billion and they respectively are placed at 310 and 552 positions.

Together, Indian billionaires are $31.9 billion.

Gates continued his reign as the richest man in the world for 10th successive year with an estimated net worth of $46.6 billion up from the previous year’s $40.7 billion but investor Warren Buffet was fast catching up and came within a few billions dollars from ousting him mainly because of rising stock prices, Forbes magazine reported. (PTI)