Making a billion just isn't what it used to be. In our inaugural ranking of the world’s richest people 20 years ago, we uncovered some 140 billionaires. Just three years ago we found 476. This year the list is a record 793. They’re worth a combined $2.6 trillion, up 18% since last March. Their average net worth: $3.3 billion.
THE TOP TEN
William Gates
Warren Buffett
Carlos Slim Helú
Ingvar Kamprad
Lakshmi Mittal
Paul Allen
Bernard Arnault
Prince Alwaleed
Kenneth Thomson
Li Ka-shing
FROM SOUTH ASIA.LISTED BY....
RANK / NAME / CITIZENSHIP / AGE / NET WORTH($BIL) / RESIDENCE
1.5 Lakshmi Mittal India 55 23.5 United Kingdom
2.25 Azim Premji India 60 13.3 India
3.56 Mukesh Ambani India 48 8.5 India
4.104 Anil Ambani India 46 5.7 India
5.114 Kushal Pal Singh India 74 5.0 India
6.125 Sunil Mittal India 48 4.9 India
7.140 Kumar Birla India 38 4.4 India
8.168 Shiv Nadar India 60 4.0 India
9.185 Pallonji Mistry India 76 3.6 India
10.207 Anurag Dikshit India 34 3.3 Gibraltar
11.245 Anil Agarwal India 52 2.8 United Kingdom
12.245 Ravi & Shashi Ruia India NA 2.8 India
13.278 Adi Godrej & family India 63 2.6 India
14.317 Indu Jain India 69 2.4 India
15.317 Dilip Shanghvi India 50 2.4 India
16.512 Naresh Goyal India 56 1.5 United Kingdom
17.562 Baba Kalyani India 57 1.4 India
18.645 NR Narayana Murthy India 59 1.2 India
19.698 Uday Kotak India 47 1.1 India
20.746 Subhash Chandra India 55 1.0 India
21.746 Habil Khorakiwala India 63 1.0 India
22.746 Vijay Mallya India 50 1.0 India
23.689 Tulsi Tanti India 46 1.0
India has more billionaires than China!!...
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/Rank_1.html
FROM THE BBC
Forbes reports billionaire boom
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett take the top places
A worldwide economic boom has yielded a record number of dollar billionaires in the past year, according to Forbes.
Their number rose by 15% to 793 with India taking the lead in Asia and new Russians lining up to fill the gap left by jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Microsoft's Bill Gates tops the list for the 12th year running, with a net worth of $50bn (£29bn).
The combined net worth of the 793 is $2.6 trillion and US billionaires account for just under half the amount.
TOP FIVE BILLIONAIRES
Bill Gates (US, Microsoft) -
$50bn
Warren Buffett (US, investor) - $42bn
Carlos Slim (Mexico, industrialist) - $30bn
Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden, Ikea) - $28bn
Lakshmi Mittal (India, steel) $23.5bn
"A billion just isn't what it used to be," said Luisa Kroll, Forbes magazine's associate editor, revealing the 20th annual list in New York.
But she noted the figures were conservative estimates for different reasons.
A very positive spreadsheet could indicate a desire to sell a business, she told reporters, while somebody about to divorce might seek to downplay their worth.
According to the 2006 list:
the youngest billionaire is a Lebanese woman, 22-year-old Hind Hariri, who inherited $1.4bn from her assassinated father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
India's 23 billionaires have a combined net worth of $99bn, surpassing former Asian leader Japan's 27 billionaires with their total worth of $67bn
Russia's 33 billionaires now have a combined wealth of $172bn, based largely on oil and gas prices, compared to a total of $68bn for oil-rich Saudi Arabia's 11 billionaires .
For entire article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4791848.stm
