The prestigious international business magazine ‘Forbes’ has listed Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) as the richest Indian who has marked the top position for the first time in Forbes’ list, while last year’s no.1 and world’s biggest steel maker Lakshmi Nivas Mittal, an Indian born British resident and owner of Arcelor Mittal has been listed on the second position (slipped the top position).
Releasing the list of 40 richest Indians in the world, Forbes Asia said that global financial crisis, sinking stock market and property values have shaved off nearly 60% of cumulative assets of all 40 richest Indians.
Anil Dhirubahi Ambani, the third in the list and estrange brother of Mukesh Ambani, has been hurt the worst by losing USD 32.5 billion, while Mukesh Ambani has lost USD 28.2 billion but could manage to get the top spot.
L N Mittal, on the other hand, has lost whopping USD 30.5 billion as well as his first position too.
“These are painful times for India's richest as the ongoing global turmoil drastically reshapes their fortunes,” the magazine said, “the country's once soaring stock market fell 48 percent in the 12 months, the rupee depreciated 24 percent against the dollar and the gross domestic product growth is expected to slow down to 7.5 percent, partly owing to double-digit inflation.”
Bharti Telecommunication president, Sunil Bharti Mittal has been ranked 4th; while Real Estate baron Kushal Pal Singh, the DLF chief who lost USD 27.2 billion in a year has been listed on the 5th position of Forbes list.
This time, two women against last year’s three have been able to mark their positions in the top 40 list. These are: Savitri Jindal, the chairperson of O P Jindal group, and Indu Jain, owner of the Bennett, Coleman & Co.'s, the leading media and entertainment firm.
However, Anu Aga, the head of Thermax, a leading environment management solutions making firm, who ranked at 38th last year could not secure her position and failed to make any position in the list.
Out of 40 nominees, 34 were also listed last year’s Forbes list, while six new billionaires have replaced the same number of business tycoons.
“The collective losses of those six were USD 7.9 billion,” said Forbes, further added, the worsening global economic crisis, plunging stock market, rupee-dollar depreciation and tumbling price of real estate sector have eroded billions of rupees to all Indian wealthiest.
Strangely, liquor king and airline tycoon Vijay Mallya, and Gautam Thapar, head of India's largest paper manufacturer-Ballarpur Industries, are among the six who could not secure any position in the list. It was because of heavy loss in their business due to deepening global economic crisis, rising crude oil prices and sinking stock market.
Micky Jagtiani, head of a retail empire in the Middle East, and Hemant Shah, son of a Bollywood film producer who made his fortune in construction, are among the new comers in the list; while Yususf Hamied, head of Cipla- a pharmaceuticals company, and Brijmohan Lall Munjal, patriarch of Hero Group, which makes motorcycles and bicycles have bounced back to the list after one-year gap.
Tulsi Tanti, head of wind power major Suzlon, and his brothers lost 91% of their wealth, while the second largest real estate firm Unitech's Ramesh Chandra lost the same portion of his asset. His total asset became half in a single day in October.
Only pharmaceutical industries could beat market conditions, and Malvinder and Shivinder brothers could actually succeed to raise their wealth, but it was due to selling off their 34% stake of India’s largest drug making firm Ranbaxy to Japanese Daiichi Sankyo at a hefty premium to the stock’s current price.
|
|
Read More: Jind
Comments:
