Forbes list: Riches of richest up 18%
MUMBAI: India has 119 billionaires, as compared to 101 last year, and Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani, 60, who breaks into the top 20 globally, continues to top the India list with a net worth of $40.10 billion, according to the Forbes billionaires list, 2018.
The annual listing by the publication is considered the most authoritative ranking of the world’s rich.
This year, the Forbes list has 2,208 billionaires compared with 2,043 billionaires in 2017. The combined net worth of the billionaires in the world is $9.1 trillion, compared with $7.67 trillion last year, up 18.64%.
The combined net worth of the Indian billionaires is $440.10 billion, up from $325.5 billion in 2017.
Ambani’s net worth saw a jump of 72.84% from $23.2 billion last year. Meanwhile, Azim Premji, 72, chairman of Wipro Ltd, overtook Arcelormittal chairman Lakshmi Mittal, 67, to the second spot ; Premji saw his wealth grow 24.8% to $18.60 billion compared with $14.9 billion in the previous year.
Mittal saw a jump of 12.8%, from $16.4 billion to $ 18.50 billion.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar
Sharma, 39, continued to be the youngest Indian billionaire on the list—his net worth jumped to $1.70 billion from $1.30 billion, an increase of 30.77%. He is one of
the 63 billionaires under the age of 40 in the world -- a group that is worth a collective $265 billion.
Nirav Modi, who made headlines in the Rs.12,600 crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, exited the rich list this year—his net worth was $1.70 billion in 2017, but is now less than $100 million, according to the Forbes website.
This year, 18 new billionaire Indians made it to the list including Madhu Kapur, sister-in-law of Yes Bank Ltd’s chairman Rana Kapoor, and Thrissurbased Kochouseph Chittilappilly, chairman of V-guard Industries and vice chairman of Wonderla Holidays, which operates amusement parks in south India.
The number of Indian women on the list doubled to eight from four in 2017; the women had a combined net worth of $23.5 billion. An all-time high of 256 women made the 2018 Forbes World’s Billionaires rankings; their collective net worth topped $1 trillion, up 20% since last year, according to the Forbes website.
For the first time Amazon.com Inc.’s founder Jeff Bezos topped the list with a net worth of $112 billion, thanks to a $39.2 billion jump in his net worth in the past year, pushing Microsoft Corp.’s Bill Gates to number 2 this year with a net worth of $90 billion.
According to the Forbes website, the Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates on February 9, 2018.