New Delhi, Feb 07 : Forbes has released the World’s Billionaire list for 2019. The top most richest Indian in the list is business magnate Mukesh Ambani who secured the 13th spot after jumping six positions on the list. The 61-year-old businessman’s wealth swelled from $40.1 billion in 2018 when he was the 19th richest in the world, to $50 billion in 2019.
Meanwhile, the world’s richest person on the list is e-commerce giant Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, followed by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The riches of Bezos increased by $19 billion within a year and is currently worth $131 billion, said Forbes.
Here is a list of the top 10 Indians in Forbes World’s Billionaire list:
1) Mukesh Ambani
2) Azim Premji
3) Shiv Nadar
4) Lakshmi Mittal
5) Uday Kotak
6) Kumar Mangalam Birla
7) Radhakishan Damani and family
8) Cyrus Poonawalla
9) Gautam Adani
10) Nusli Wadia
Forbes said the “list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from February 8, 2019”. Some people become richer or poorer within days of publication. “We list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children if that person is the founder of the fortune,” it said.
The 33rd annual ranking has 2,153 billionaires on the 2019 list, down from 2,208 in 2018. The total combined net worth of this year’s billionaires is USD 8.7 trillion, down from USD 9.1 trillion in 2018, Forbes said. “This represents the first decrease in billionaires and their combined wealth since 2016 and only the second decrease in the past decade,” it said. “A record 994 individuals are worth less than a year ago; last year only 360 members got poorer. The average net worth of this year’s billionaires is USD 4 billion, down from USD 4.1 billion in 2018.”
Meanwhile, Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani has secured the 13th spot on Forbes World’s Billionaire list after jumping six positions. The list was released on Tuesday. The 61-year-old businessman’s wealth swelled from $40.1 billion in 2018 when he was the 19th richest in the world, to $50 billion in 2019.
“Ambani chairs and runs USD 60 billion (revenue) oil and gas giant Reliance Industries, among India’s most valuable companies,” Forbes said, adding that “in 2016, Reliance sparked a price war in India’s hyper-competitive telecom market with the launch of 4G phone service Jio.” Jio has attracted 280 million customers by providing free domestic voice calls, cheap data services and virtually free smartphones.
Ambani now leads the 106 billionaires from India on the Forbes list. While Wipro Chairman Azim Premji ranks 36th with a net worth of $22.6 billion dollars, technology major HCL’s co-founder Shiv Nadar ranks 82nd and ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal has secured the 91st rank in the top 100 richest persons in the World’s Billionaire List.
On the 2017 Forbes Billionaire List, Ambani had secured the 33rd position. Forbes said he is the richest Indian and ranked 32nd on the 2018 Powerful People listing of the magazine. He was ranked Global Game Changer in 2017.
The list of Indian billionaires includes Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Birla (122), Chairman and founder of the Adani Group Gautam Adani (167), Bharti Airtel head Sunil Mittal (244), co-founder of consumer goods giant Patanjali Ayurveda Acharya Balkrishna (365), Piramal Entreprises Chair Ajay Piramal (436), Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (617), Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy (962) and RCom chairman Reliance Anil Ambani (1349).
Meanwhile, the world’s top richest person on the list is e-commerce giant Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, followed by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The riches of Bezos increased by $19 billion within a year and is currently worth $131 billion, said Forbes.
The “list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from February 8, 2019,” said Forbes adding that, “Some people become richer or poorer within days of publication. We list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children if that person is the founder of the fortune.”
