India's 40 Richest

India's rising fortunes are underscored by the increasing prosperity of its wealthiest citizens. Members of our third annual ranking of India's 40 richest businesspeople are worth a collective $170 billion, up from $106 billion last year. India's top ten, worth $112 billion, account for two-thirds of that wealth. The rankings include 36 billionaires, nine more than last year. India's hot stock market, up 39% this year, and its robust real estate market helped swell most fortunes. The minimum net worth needed to make the cut rose to $790 million, up from $590 million.

Lakshmi Mittal, who lives in London and in June forged a landmark deal to acquire Luxembourg rival Arcelor, remains No. 1, worth $25 billion. Azim Premji, for years India's richest resident, was unseated by Mukesh and Anil Ambani. The two brothers, who split their business empire last year after a much-publicized feud, have found life alone much richer: Mukesh's fortune rose by $11.5 billion, Anil's $9.3 billion. Still the spat continues, with one of Anil's companies recently taking Mukesh's Reliance Industries to court over a gas supply agreement.

Many tycoons have been in the news lately for negotiating big deals. Venugopal Dhoot is set to acquire Daewoo Electronics for $700 million. Commodities magnate Kumar Mangalam Birla paid $1 billion to buy the Tata Group's stake in their telecom joint venture, Idea. Banker Uday Kotak bought out Goldman Sach's stake in his bank's investment banking and brokerage arms.

There are five newcomers, including politically connected Kalanithi Maran, who runs regional broadcaster Sun TV; Ramesh Chandra, who made a fortune building middle-class housing; and Jignesh Shah, who set up India's largest commodities exchange. Two others, tractor tycoon Keshub Mahindra and Infosys Technologies cofounder K. Dinesh, return to the list after having previously slipped off.

This year's seven dropouts include India's richest self-made woman, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. The stock of her biopharmaceutical firm Biocon dropped 26% in the past 12 months. The list's biggest loser was Anurag Dikshit, No. 29, who saw the stock of his Internet gaming outfit, PartyGaming, tank over regulatory issues.

Methodology: Unlike Forbes' World Billionaires list, this ranking has been broadened to include family fortunes. For instance, Tulsi Tanti's $5.9 billion fortune represents his family's entire 70% stake in Suzlon Energy, not just his personal 30% stake. For people with fortunes in publicly traded companies, net worths were calculated using Nov. 2006, market prices and exchange rates. Privately held companies are valued by coupling estimates of revenues or profits (or, in some cases, company-provided numbers) to prevailing ratios for similar publicly traded companies.

The billionaires from Bangalore includes Azim Premji, Narayanamurthy, Nandan Nilekani, Vijay Malya & Dinesh.

Source : Forbes Magazine